Untitled 2022

This untitled drawing was made in 2022 in Kyiv Oblast by Alevtyna Kakhidze, using what looks like marker pen on paper. The process is so upfront, no room for secrets here, every line, every block of flat color laid bare. Look at the contrast between the raw, almost scribbled lines of the figures and text, and the solid areas of color in the geometric shapes. The artist is really embracing the directness of the medium. It's like she's thinking aloud on paper, using the materials at hand to record thoughts. The drawing feels immediate. I wonder, what’s going on in that yellow box? I see the same figure repeated, and in the top right corner a clock, which looks to be set to midnight. I’m reminded of the work of Philip Guston, especially his later, more cartoonish paintings, which similarly combine personal and political themes in a deliberately rough and unschooled style. There’s something about this work that embraces ambiguity and multiple readings over fixed meanings.