She’s Aware 2021

Monica Ikegwu’s painting ‘She’s Aware’ is an intimate portrait rendered in oil with a dominant palette of blues and browns. I imagine Monica in the act of painting, moving between intention and intuition, carefully building up layers of color to capture the emotional weight of the sitter. It looks like the sitter is deep in thought, her gaze averted. Monica really emphasizes the tactile quality of surfaces – the shiny lip gloss, the soft texture of the fur trim on her jacket. The artist has built the figure and the folds of the blue fabric background with delicate brushstrokes. There's something so contemporary about this painting and how it manages to be both of the moment, and of the old masters. Painters are always speaking to one another across time, learning from and riffing off each other's experiments, searching for new ways to represent the world and the people in it. Every painting is a conversation starter!