Untitled 2022

Alevtyna Kakhidze made this untitled drawing, probably in 2021, using what looks like a felt tip pen and some red marker. The directness of the marks here really gets to me - you can feel the artist's hand moving across the page, capturing these stark portraits and handwritten notes. The lack of shading or detail gives the piece an immediacy, like it was jotted down in one go. There's something so raw about the way the faces are rendered, almost like caricatures, yet they still convey a sense of realness, of individual identity. That pop of red feels so significant, highlighting the gravity of the words and the emotions behind them. It's interesting to think about how this piece might relate to the work of someone like Philip Guston, who also embraced a kind of raw, expressive figuration in his later work. Both artists seem to be using the simplicity of their materials and techniques to get at something deeper, something more urgent. Art doesn't always have to be slick or polished to be powerful, right?