Squared 1991

Oleg Holosiy made this painting called "Squared", with oil on canvas, and though the date is unknown, what strikes me is the raw immediacy of its making. There's a tension in the work. Look at the textures, the way Holosiy contrasts the diffused, cloud-like form at the top with the solid, geometric square below. Inside this red square is a head rendered with a kind of frantic energy, each stroke alive and visible. The surface isn't about illusion; it’s about a record of action, of the painter's touch, the materiality of the paint itself. It reminds me of work by Francis Bacon, an artist who was also interested in the human figure and the ways in which painting could express raw emotion. There’s a beautiful ambiguity here, a sense that the painting embraces uncertainty rather than trying to resolve it. Holosiy seems to be reminding us that art is a conversation.