Aketesia 2022

Cornelius Annor made this painting, Aketesia, probably recently, and I love the way he’s working. It’s so open, a real process. The surface has this amazing, kind of crusty texture, especially in the wall behind the figure. You can almost feel the push and pull of the brush, the way he’s layered the paint to create this palpable sense of depth and presence. And then there’s the dress. That wild pattern is painted so precisely it almost becomes abstract. See how the shadows around her arm echo the turquoise swirls in the fabric? It’s like he’s dissolving the boundary between the figure and the space around her, blurring the lines between representation and pure form. It's an interesting dance – Annor reminds me a little of Noah Davis, with this amazing ability to create both distance and intimacy within the same frame. Both artists understand that painting isn't about answers, it's about questions.