Untitled (from Collection Resonance) 2011

Monique Orsini made this *Untitled* painting with a kind of swooping confidence, where the process is right there on the surface. The first thing I noticed was the texture – how the strokes of paint build up, thick in some spots, almost transparent in others. It's like she's sculpting with color. Look at that dark red area down below – you can almost feel the weight of the paint, the way it drags and catches on the canvas. Then, up top, those soft pinks and whites are so light, they almost float. The whole thing has this incredible tension between groundedness and airiness. It reminds me a bit of Helen Frankenthaler's soak-stain paintings, but with a more visceral, in-your-face kind of energy. Orsini’s painting feels like an open invitation to get lost in the messy, beautiful act of making.