IMAGE:29 2019

Thomas Riesner made this image with paint on paper; I can really feel the movement that he must have used to create it. Look at the red paint: it’s drippy, it’s washy, it’s immediate. The texture of this piece is what really grabs me. The stark white background almost highlights the physicality of the paint. You can see the strokes, the way the colors blend and bleed, especially around the figure’s face and torso. It’s like Riesner wasn’t trying to hide the process, but reveling in it. That drippy red paint has a life of its own, and it's everywhere! The figure in the painting seems to be caught between worlds, trapped behind the red square acting as a grid. I am reminded of the work of outsider artist, Henry Darger. Both Riesner and Darger create unsettling images which seem to be deeply personal and cathartic. Like much art, this piece embraces ambiguity, inviting multiple interpretations rather than offering fixed meanings.