The Armenian woman 1946

Mariam Aslamazian created this portrait of an Armenian woman with oil on canvas. The way the paint is applied here is so interesting, it looks like she's building up these areas of color, almost like a mosaic, the process of making visible right there on the surface. Look at how the grey background comes right up to the face, the marks sitting side by side to create form. It’s not blended or smoothed out. There's this amazing earthy palette, browns and greys, but then, pops of red around the eyes that give the painting such a striking presence. The materiality of the paint, the textures and colors, they all come together to shape the emotion of the piece. It reminds me a little of Alice Neel’s portraits – that same unflinching gaze and commitment to the real. Art, you know, it's all about conversations, echoes, and shared ideas across time. Nothing is ever really fixed, there’s always room for more than one way of seeing.