Yellowstone I 2015

Curator: My eye is immediately drawn to the explosion of colors! Is this what it feels like to stare into the sun? Editor: Quite the contrary, I actually experience it more as a landscape of sorts. In this room we find “Yellowstone I,” an acrylic painting by Requena Nozal, dating to 2015. It’s an intense piece employing a heavy impasto technique. Curator: Landscape... Hmm. It has such energy, but a rather chaotic quality as well. The Fauvist colors create an unnatural, perhaps unreal place, as if it doesn't obey rules of earthly color. Are we to associate this with the real Yellowstone, then, I wonder what that association might imply? Editor: Well, as we've learned from colour-field painting, colour here may well be the subject matter itself, as well as evoking emotional depth through layering, pushing us to feel more than to see, literally adding textures upon one another for heightened effect. It calls to mind abstract expressionism’s emphasis on spontaneous, intuitive brushwork to reveal the artist's inner state... Curator: Precisely! But even beyond personal emotion, certain colors have acquired specific connotations throughout history. Yellow, for example, can mean optimism and enlightenment, while red is obviously associated with passion and rage, yet together they compose this "Yellowstone" image... Are we looking at an internal struggle laid bare then, through Nozal's chosen schema, projected perhaps into the geographical landmark? Editor: Yes, there's a definite sense of unrest. If it weren't for that vibrant yellow fighting to hold its ground amid the aggressive reds and greens, the darker, more turbulent undercurrent might overcome everything! And yet, perhaps this is a mirror, forcing us to acknowledge and make peace with inner turbulence through aesthetic form, and to discover resolution precisely via artistic interpretation. Curator: Perhaps in naming this work, Requena Nozal sought to embody an idea itself, inviting us to see her perspective on conflict in nature and culture, with no fixed viewpoint prevailing over another. It creates dialogue, perhaps, with even viewers like ourselves, offering our subjective understandings as just further texture... Editor: Absolutely, an aesthetic exercise to reconcile chaos, forcing both its maker and its audience to see its strange and uneasy beauty in a way we might never forget.