Camouflage 2009

Andrey Remnev made this painting, called Camouflage, using oil paints on canvas. It’s like Remnev is stirring a painterly soup where the ingredients are a bit dreamlike and unexpected. I love how the light seems to glow from within, it almost feels like he is using egg tempura like those early Italian painters. The surface has a real smoothness that can be seductive. There is a figure, draped in what seems to be a pale green cloak with fish motifs, and it looks like she is almost part of the background, blending in with the irises and the birds. These carefully chosen elements make the work feel like a riddle, or like a stage set where everything is arranged to create a very particular effect. It reminds me of the symbolic worlds of artists like Gustav Klimt, where everything has a hidden meaning, and the beauty is just the first layer of something much deeper. Remnev is inviting us to see the world as a place of infinite possibilities and connections, where nothing is quite as it seems.