Untitled (from Collection Resonance) 2011

Monique Orsini made this untitled painting with who-knows-what, but it looks like acrylic or maybe gouache. I love the way Orsini builds form out of brushstrokes here, like she’s coaxing the image into being. It’s all about the layering, the way the marks accumulate and shift in value and intensity. Look at the upper left corner, how the dark reds build up to create a sense of depth and weight. And then the lighter, almost transparent strokes that dance around the edges, giving it a sense of airiness. There’s a push-pull thing happening. Is this a flower? A figure? Or just pure abstraction? It reminds me of Joan Mitchell, but with a more delicate touch, but at the same time, it has this raw, almost violent energy. It’s like Orsini is wrestling with the paint, trying to find the image within. And that’s what makes it so compelling. The ambiguity, the tension, the feeling that anything could happen.