What the bird... 2009

Alexander Roitburd's painting, "What the bird…", is a wild and evocative landscape rendered in oil. The marks are thick and gestural, conjuring a sense of otherworldly metamorphosis. I can imagine Roitburd in his studio, wrestling with the canvas, layering and scraping paint. He’s got this incredible teal-ish blue that he’s slashing across the canvas, with a kind of urgency. Like he’s not sure what he’s going to get, but he's willing to find out. He's almost digging in the paint! This bird-like figure, maybe a griffin, emerges from a sea of textured strokes, with a human head resting on its back. The figure embodies a symbolic carrier, almost burdened by the weight of its passenger. Roitburd’s painting feels like it’s in conversation with other visionary painters, like the work of Leonora Carrington. In the end, painting is all about creating a space for us to ponder. It's about taking a walk into the unknown together.