Another Day 2018

Martine Johanna’s 'Another Day' feels like it was born from a fever dream, all rendered in acrylic. I’m curious about how the artist decided to mask off sections of this face with tape and then flood them with fields of saturated color. I imagine Martine thinking about how to piece together a face, not in a realistic way, but more like constructing a collage. It's like she's asking us, what do we really see when we look at someone? How much of it is surface, and how much is hidden? I like the red and white stripes around the neck, a bit like a scarf, painted with such a high gloss it feels almost slippery, almost separate from the human form. In a funny way, it reminds me of Elizabeth Murray's paintings, where shapes and colors are used to create a kind of emotional map. Artists are always in conversation, right? Stealing ideas, remixing them, and making something new. It's an ongoing, beautiful mess.