Spinning the Laundry 2021

Iwo Zaniewski's "Spinning the Laundry", is a fascinating rendering of a studio space, I imagine it was likely created with soft pastels or oil sticks. The mark-making here is really what grabs me; it's all about these short, flickering strokes of color layered on top of one another. It’s like seeing the world through a screen or looking at it on a low res monitor, which I think really speaks to the idea of artmaking as a process of constant filtering and re-evaluation. Looking at this piece, I’m drawn to the way Zaniewski handles texture. It’s like he’s trying to capture the tactile quality of everything in the room. If you look closely at the rug in the lower right foreground, you can see how each stroke builds up to create a sense of depth. The physical medium is definitely present. There's an interesting dialogue happening here between the interior space and the outside world. It reminds me a little of Bonnard, in its intimate and atmospheric qualities, but it also feels distinctly contemporary. At the end of the day, art is just an ongoing conversation across time, where meaning is always up for grabs!