Manipulations 1988

Curator: Oleg Holosiy's "Manipulations" from 1988 strikes me immediately with its rather somber palette. The forms seem both figurative and collapsing into pure abstraction. Editor: My first impression is tension. There is a literal push and pull in the mixed media—it feels constructed and deconstructed simultaneously. I wonder about Holosiy's studio at this time, his access to material... Curator: The impasto technique definitely reinforces that physical sense you describe, a tangible presence that's hard to ignore. Observe how Holosiy seems to layer oil paint with what looks like other materials, weaving a dense texture. The brushstrokes, so active and gestural, convey emotional turmoil, no? Editor: I agree, and I think the emotional context is inextricably tied to the sociopolitical atmosphere of the Soviet Union in the late 80s. The labor, the sheer force evident in the layering—it reflects the tensions and cracks appearing within the system itself, perhaps speaking to collective unease. It is also very important to me to examine the consumption, what material means. Curator: That’s an interesting perspective! While understanding the circumstances of its making deepens the work, I still think about the arrangement of shapes and colors which work formally. The arrangement directs your eye and makes use of repetition. Editor: I see them rather as the representation of social, laborative repetition of human manipulations and misdeeds that bring our history to this. The title seals it! It is powerful as you engage with its meaning through medium and artistic work of construction, of manual labor in creating of it. Curator: So, what stays with you most after this close observation? Editor: The way Holosiy pushed his materials to express, maybe even confront, the crumbling of a world. How art material is also life material! Curator: For me, it's how Holosiy has orchestrated something profoundly emotive from seemingly disparate pictorial components.