The Shadow People 2020

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this black ink painting, The Shadow People, with expressive marks on absorbent paper. You can see the immediacy of his gesture in the washes and drips of ink. It's a quick, intuitive, and ephemeral image. I imagine him working fast, trying to capture something that flickered through his mind, like a memory. You can see the ghost of Goya in the shadowy figures; they evoke something political, troubling, and deeply human. The stark, minimal color palette serves to amplify the contrast between light and shadow. Think about the process of making this work, and you start to imagine the artist’s state of mind, the energy and intention infused into each mark. This is where the act of painting becomes a site of inquiry, both for the artist and for us, the viewers. I can feel a connection with Krupa through the materiality of the medium.