Composite Woman 2015

Babak-Matveev’s "Composite Woman" – its title is a great clue! – is large, almost life-sized. It seems to have emerged out of a blurry mix of light and dark, brown and white. I can imagine Babak-Matveev in the studio, adding layer upon layer, trying to conjure a figure that’s both there and not there. It’s interesting to think how the artist constructs this site of inquiry, inviting us to look closely at the image as a whole. The work has a tactile quality that seems so central to painting, almost like a fingerprint, a trace of the artist’s presence. There is a sense of an ongoing conversation with the history of painting, particularly artists like Gerhard Richter, whose blurred paintings also explore themes of memory and perception. "Composite Woman" is like a dance between control and chance, embracing uncertainty and ambiguity.