Nyinyilki 2010

Sally Gabori made this painting, Nyinyilki, with bold strokes of acrylic on canvas. Imagine her standing before this canvas, layering these confident marks in magenta, black, and white. You can sense the energy and rhythm in her gestures, pushing the paint around to discover the image. Those blacks give definition, those whites, light. I always think about process, how things come into being. And in this painting, you feel Gabori’s presence so strongly. Those colors, so direct and unfussy, create a visual punch. It’s not about subtlety but about expression. I wonder if she felt a kinship to other painters working with bold color like Matisse? The surface is alive with the trace of her movements. It reminds me that painting is so much about an ongoing conversation with yourself and other artists. It's about embracing those happy accidents. There's a kind of beautiful uncertainty, which keeps me going.