Verity 2016

Editor: We're looking at Aaron Nagel's "Verity" from 2016, an oil painting depicting a nude woman with golden hands. There's something quite unsettling, almost surreal, about the stark contrast between her pale skin and those metallic, painted hands. What strikes you about its composition and the artist’s choices? Curator: It's a fascinating play on textures and symbolic weights. Note how the draping fabric, with its meticulous folds and tonal shifts, creates a soft, almost classical setting. The smoothness of her skin juxtaposes starkly with the roughly textured, almost alchemic gold on her hands. The hands, marked as they are, demand scrutiny. Are they emblems of value, or are they weighted down? Consider how the artist directs our gaze through contrasting color, the pale figure grounded against the darker support. Editor: That contrast really stands out. Do you think there's something intentional in the asymmetry, that only one hand is fully covered in gold? Curator: Precisely. The asymmetry injects a dynamic tension. Consider it from a structuralist viewpoint: the figure is bisected, visually, inviting a semiotic reading. Gold typically connotes wealth, purity, divinity even; however, here it's as though that quality is incomplete, encroaching. It compels us to ponder the meaning of partial transformation and questions the very essence of assumed ideals. Editor: I hadn't thought of the symbolism that way. The contrast feels more pronounced now. Curator: It begs the question: where is this symbolic weight concentrated and what purpose does it serve? Nagel manipulates the visual language skillfully, making "Verity" a complex investigation into what we value and how that affects our very being. I believe, too, in thinking about line, shape, color, and composition – their relationship and interdependence in delivering the artist's chosen expression. Editor: I can definitely see how Nagel uses color and texture to highlight themes of value and transformation. Thanks for the in-depth look at the symbolic language embedded in “Verity.”