Stranger on the plattform 2020

Nick Alm, born in 1985, made this painting called 'Stranger on the platform,' and it feels like it’s about capturing a fleeting, melancholic moment. Look at the way Alm uses these muted, desaturated colors—lots of grays and blues. The paint is applied in a way that feels both precise and loose, creating a sort of hazy, dreamlike quality. You can almost feel the cool air of the platform. I imagine Alm being very still, trying to capture the atmosphere with each brushstroke, each color choice. The central figure, a woman in a dark coat, she’s standing there, almost frozen in time. It reminds me of other figurative painters like Gerhard Richter, who blur the line between realism and abstraction. It’s like Alm is saying, "Hey, we’re all just trying to figure things out, one brushstroke at a time." And that’s what makes painting so alive and uncertain.