Layers 2018

Soltan Soltanlı made this dream-like painting, Layers, perhaps in 2018, using acrylic. Look at how these layers of animals have come into being, through the artist’s hand, shifting and emerging. I really sympathize with Soltanlı here, trying to wrangle all these animals into one place. What was he thinking when he made this? The surface looks smooth, but those individual daubs of green and yellow really catch the light. The brushwork is almost naive. And the way the goats perch atop the dark cows. I think of Arthur Dove somehow! That red goat really pops, doesn’t it? It communicates feeling, intention, or meaning. It’s a moment of pure painterly freedom, but also I wonder if it refers to something real? Ultimately, artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity. And in painting, we embrace ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.