Untitled 2007

This Untitled work by Monique Orsini has an intensity of dark, sweeping brushstrokes, punctuated by a spot of almost blood-red. The act of painting feels right there on the canvas, present and raw, like the artist was trying to wrestle something into being. I can imagine Orsini in her studio, pushing and pulling at the paint, maybe unsure of exactly what she wanted to emerge but trusting in the process. There’s an urgency in those marks, a kind of searching. The paint looks like it might be thinned, almost translucent in places, allowing the texture of the canvas to peek through. Then that smack of red, anchoring the whole composition. It’s like she’s in conversation with painters like Richter or maybe even Goya. She's not just representing an image, but really digging into what paint can do, how it can convey feeling, intention, ambiguity. Painting is an ongoing conversation, and these artists are all inspiring each other across time.