Energies in Outer Space 1995

Nassos Daphnis made this artwork called Energies in Outer Space, but when, how, and with what materials, who knows?! It’s all lines and dots, color and shape – the pure building blocks of painting. He’s not trying to ‘capture’ space, he’s trying to build it. It’s funny though, isn't it? How something so flat can still evoke that feeling of endlessness and distance, it's the colours probably. It’s so spare, but it still makes you think, you know? Look at the way he's got the lines of color bunched together, like a horizon line. It’s not a real horizon, but it suggests one. He’s using the formal language of painting to mess with our sense of space, our perception of color and light. It reminds me a little of Agnes Martin, that same kind of quiet intensity, and interest in pure form. It's a conversation across time, one painting talking to another. I love it when paintings do that.