Senza Titolo 2017

Zani Corrado made this oil painting, Senza Titolo, and immediately I’m drawn to the brushwork. It’s so direct, the way each stroke seems to build the form of the eye right in front of us. Look at that little pool of light in the pupil, a tiny fleck of blue surrounded by so much darkness! The paint isn't blended much. Instead, we get these assertive marks in greens and yellows and browns. It reminds me that painting is such a material, physical process – it’s about pushing paint around, letting it sit on the surface, making something real out of pigment. It feels like a cousin to some of the raw portrait heads by Philip Guston, where the features are roughed in with this same kind of urgent, searching energy. Ultimately, art is about feeling our way through, embracing the mess, and seeing what emerges.