Sole On Ice 

Curator: Dan Graziano's painting, "Sole On Ice", strikes me immediately. It has this… unsettled energy. It’s visceral and raw, isn't it? Editor: I agree. Looking at it closely, you really see the physicality of the paint, the almost sculptural quality achieved with thick impasto. You can almost feel the artist working. I see clear connections to the expressionist movement in his painterly approach, reminiscent of artists who focused on using the medium itself to express emotion. Curator: And consider where paintings like these sit in the art world—are they challenging notions of the "proper subject" of fine art? Or are they still-lifes? I also note it doesn’t seem to come from a specific era. The way the artist captures light and color, there’s a definite echo of modernist painting in the last half-century. Editor: Absolutely. The focus is not simply on representing reality but on conveying the sensory experience, a sort of translation. Look at the economic forces that dictate food accessibility— the material conditions surrounding food industries find an unexpected form of art. Curator: This painting almost has an immediacy to it. Are we considering what is included versus omitted? Are we discussing access? I mean, think of its viewers now, experiencing it within the context of our museum, how that shapes our interpretation of it as either art or as simply part of culture. Editor: Right, but it’s hard to ignore the labour too: The procurement of resources like canvas and oil-paint. Then it's being viewed through an economic lens as object instead of commodity. Curator: Ultimately, isn't "Sole On Ice" as about power? Our current economic power relations which dictates whether fresh ingredients such as this will ever reach our plates? I appreciate art that sparks discussions about our relationship with the everyday and maybe what goes unseen in these environments. Editor: Well, looking at it now with what you just shared, you know...it has gained some weight in my eyes...it leaves an aftertaste, much like the one you may encounter after eating any dish, and definitely gets one thinking about art.