Embarkation 1988

Alvaro Lapa made this stark painting, Embarkation, with what looks like ink and gouache on paper. The dark, limited palette is intriguing. It sets a tone that’s both serious and strangely playful, like artmaking is a kind of game. Look at how Lapa works with the paint. It's thin in places, almost like a wash, but then thick and opaque in others. You can see the strokes and the physicality of the medium, giving the image a kind of raw energy. The white outline of the central form is really lovely; like a memory. There’s this little constellation of white dots within that shape, a whole cosmos contained in it’s confines. Lapa's work reminds me a bit of Philip Guston's later paintings, that same willingness to embrace awkwardness and ambiguity. Art's not about answers, it’s about the questions we ask along the way.