Grotto 1989

Oleg Holosiy made this painting, Grotto, an oil on canvas, sometime before 1993. He was a Ukrainian artist. Looking at this painting, I feel I'm peering through murky water or maybe a dream. The brushstrokes are thick and loaded, almost sculptural, especially in the blues and yellows that pop against the darker ground. The face emerges, spectral. It’s not quite there, not fully formed, more like a suggestion. It reminds me of a Cy Twombly in its scribbled quality, but with a heavier, more melancholic feel. Holosiy's process feels like an excavation, scraping away at the surface to reveal something hidden, something felt more than seen. The face is a memory, a phantom, rendered with a sensitivity to the materiality of paint. It suggests a world of fleeting impressions, rather than solid forms. A bit like life, right?