Day Dreaming 2018

Martine Johanna's painting presents a portrait in oil with bold elements of yellow, black, and turquoise. The painting feels like it has emerged through many layers, like she might have pushed and pulled the medium around the canvas to conjure the image. I imagine Johanna in her studio, circling the canvas, perhaps considering how to offset the figure's dark skin with graphic interjections of pure color. The subject has a lollipop, which might indicate a meditation on sweetness and pleasure. She has broken the figure into geometric shapes and her color scheme evokes a surreal atmosphere. Look at how the turquoise lines make the yellow shapes reverberate! I wonder if she was looking at David Hockney when she made this piece, or maybe even Archibald Motley? I bet other painters will see this and feel a thrill – it's the kind of painting that inspires conversation and pushes us to think differently about what a portrait can be.