Me x 4 2012

Małgorzata Serwatka made this painting, *Me x 4,* with mixed media on canvas, and seeing this piece feels like stumbling upon a private, visual diary. I'm immediately drawn to the layering, the way she's built up this composition like a collage of memories and thoughts. The four portraits at the bottom anchor the piece, but above them, it dissolves into abstraction and symbolism. There's this tension between representation and pure mark-making that's super compelling. I wonder about the process. Did she start with the portraits and then let the rest of the painting evolve organically? Or was it the other way around? The combination of the red and black stripes, the calendar month and the floating doves, creates a really intriguing emotional landscape. It reminds me a bit of early Philip Guston, in its willingness to embrace messiness and vulnerability. Ultimately, Serwatka’s work is about embracing ambiguity, about suggesting rather than dictating meaning. And in that sense, it invites us to bring our own experiences and interpretations to the table, and that's really exciting.