Alchemicus Redolent 2016

Stepan Ryabchenko made this digital artwork, "Alchemicus Redolent," with software that gives it a particular type of finish. The colour palette is fascinating, as it has both an appealing dreamlike quality, and something of a sickly sweet feel like overripe fruit. Ryabchenko uses the medium to create a world of glossy surfaces that both attract and slightly repel. Note the way the forms are modeled with gradients of light and shadow, so that the whole piece feels like it has been rendered to within an inch of its life. The disc on the top of the composition, sits on the form like a hat, adding a playful, surreal touch, like Philip Guston wearing a hat. Digital art like this is exciting as it continues painting’s dialogue with other media by further embracing the artificial and unreal. Its open endedness is its strength.