The Memory of the Apse 2005

Marin Gherasim made "The Memory of the Apse" with oil paint, creating a space where color and memory meet. The red and yellow tones feel earthy, while that silver shape in the middle is like a screen, a veil, or maybe a memory itself. The surface has so much texture. You can see the brushstrokes, the way the paint was dragged and layered. Up close, the silver paint is almost sculptural. It’s thick, like frosting, and then scratched with this grid, so you feel the making of the painting, the hand of the artist. Look at how the red bleeds into the yellow near the bottom, like a stain or a shadow, but also like an area of colour being softly blended in an act of tender care. Gherasim’s painting reminds me of work by Agnes Martin, particularly the way she created a sense of meditative space. But where Martin is cool, Gherasim feels warm and personal. His work invites us to reflect on the intersection of art, memory, and the traces of the artist's process.