Still Life With Glass 1987

Oleg Holosiy made this evocative still life with paint on canvas sometime before 1993. Look how he scumbles the paint, layering tones of grey and blue to create a misty, almost dreamlike atmosphere, which reminds me of the kind of intuitive approach I have when I start a canvas. The materiality here is key: Holosiy's brushstrokes are visible, especially in the background and on the surface of the table, where the paint is thick and textured. The shapes of the bottles, rendered in semi-transparent layers, add to the feeling of the everyday dissolving, becoming less defined. Take a look at the small yellow dots that punctuate the surface, drawing our eye upward and adding a strange, ghostly luminosity. This emphasis on process and the physical properties of paint connects Holosiy’s work to artists like Gerhard Richter, who also explored the tension between representation and abstraction. Art is often about embracing ambiguity, and what's special here is how the artist makes us feel this kind of openness.