Noah and Hares 1991

Oleg Holosiy made this painting, Noah and Hares, using broad gestural strokes in a dark palette punctuated with whites and reds. I like to imagine the artist in the act of painting, trying, failing, reworking… That push and pull is visible here. The painting feels raw and emotionally charged. What was Holosiy thinking about when he put brush to canvas? Maybe he was thinking of the biblical story of Noah's Ark, but with a twist. He paints a world in flux, populated by shadowy figures and leaping hares rendered in expressive brushstrokes. There’s a real physicality to the paint, the surface alive with texture and the energy of the artist's hand. Take, for example, the way he applied the white paint to create the hares, capturing their fleeting movement with just a few strokes. It reminds me of other painters I admire who use gesture to communicate feeling. Artists are always in conversation with each other. The act of painting can be an embodied expression. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty and allows for multiple interpretations and meaning.