After Examination 2017

Lucy Ivanova made this painting titled 'After Examination' with what looks like oil on canvas, and it’s all about the feel of the paint, a real hands-on, process-driven kind of thing. I love how the figure is barely there, almost dissolving into the pale blue ground. It's like a memory, a ghost, a feeling. But then you look at the juicy, drippy greens of the plants, and you’re right back in the room. The red stool seems like a focal point, anchoring the composition. The black underneath is almost like a shadow self, something lurking. It's all there in the surfaces, thick and thin, transparent and opaque. This piece is not unlike work by Tal R, where there is a similar sense of layering and the embrace of imperfection. And like Tal R, Ivanova seems less interested in perfect representation than in capturing a mood, a moment, a question. It’s an invitation to see painting as a way of thinking.