Überwindungen A Exp2 2018

Alfio Giuffrida’s Überwindungen A Exp2 is a painting with a restrained palette and meticulous mark making, and it feels like a meditation on the process of artmaking itself. The painting has a smooth surface, and the colors are flat. It makes me think of hard edge painting, or even printmaking in the way the blocks of color sit next to each other. Look at the green sphere at the bottom of the image, it is built up of individual lines. Each one is carefully laid down to create this dense and tangled form. There’s something very tender about that level of focus and commitment. I’m reminded of the work of Forrest Bess, another artist who devoted himself to strange and idiosyncratic images. Both artists embrace ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own interpretations to their work.