Preparations 2021

Zoe Hawk’s painting presents three figures getting ready, each caught in a moment of anticipation. There’s something so wonderfully strange and slightly melancholic about this piece. You can almost feel the artist wrestling with what it means to be a woman, caught between performance and expectation. The paint is applied smoothly and evenly, creating a kind of eerie stillness, like a memory or a dream. And I can imagine Hawk layering the colors, shifting and adjusting, searching for the right balance between the mundane and the surreal. The composition feels both careful and intuitive, maybe she’s asking: How do we present ourselves? What do we hide? These girls feel trapped in their little rituals, and yet, there's a sense of quiet rebellion. They are figures that might have emerged from the paintings of Balthus or early Philip Guston, but with a very unique and modern take on the female experience. It’s a painting that stays with you, raising questions.