Birdy 2 2016

Rolf Ohst’s painting, Birdy 2, shows us a man with a bird, and the colors are mostly fleshy pinks and grayish browns, laid down in smooth strokes, like a glaze. The surface is so smooth, it's like the paint has been buffed to a sheen, almost like a photograph. But then you look closer, and you see the soft shadows under his chin, and the tiny bird on his finger. The way Ohst models the light on the man's body, it's almost like he's trying to make a sculpture out of paint. Look at how the light catches the rolls of his stomach, and how the dark hairs are painted so delicately on his chest. The bird is like a tiny exclamation point, full of life and movement. Ohst's work reminds me of Lucian Freud, in the way he captures the raw physicality of the human body. Like Freud, he's not afraid to show us the unvarnished truth, but there’s a strange beauty to it all, too.