2nd letter to Mr Issa 2022

Lech Jankowski’s small oil on panel, *2nd letter to Mr Issa*, is like finding a mysterious package. It's a tightly framed view into a boxy interior, a stage set for...well, what exactly? The colors are muted – grays, blues, with this eggplant-y blob dominating the bottom. What's that? A lid? A head? I imagine Jankowski, with his brush, coaxing these forms into being, layering and scraping, until this odd little world comes into focus. I sympathize with him – this struggle to find a balance between representation and abstraction. It reminds me a bit of Morandi's bottles, but dirtier, weirder. The paint is thick, almost crusty in places, giving it a tactile quality, like you could reach out and touch this hidden place. And those two little flecks up top – birds? Spirits? They seem to hint at something beyond the material. Painters, we're all just talking to each other, across time, trying to figure things out with color and gesture.