Madonna In The Grotto 2009

Alexander Roitburd made this painting, Madonna in the Grotto, with oil, and it strikes me with its weird mix of traditional and surreal imagery. The brushwork is quite visible, the colours are a little muddy, like colours you’d find in nature. It’s the lizard in the foreground that really grabs me. It's so different from the smooth, porcelain vase looming over the Madonna, it makes you question the relationship between all the objects in the painting. Look closely, you can see how the colours are blended wet-on-wet, there’s an immediacy in the application, a sense of improvisation. The wasp too, is very arresting! I like the shadows, which create a surreal, dreamlike space around her. Roitburd's work reminds me a little of Philip Guston, in the way it manages to be both figurative and abstract, serious and playful. Ultimately, this painting revels in its own ambiguity, inviting us to find our own meaning within its strange and wonderful world.