Phase 2021

Jason Limon made this painting, Phase, sometime in the 20th century, with what looks like acrylic paint. There’s something about the way Limon builds up these thin, slightly transparent layers of color that gets me. It’s like he's excavating a memory. The surface is smooth, but there's a clear sense of the hand, especially in the cross-hatching of the skull, creating a rough texture and a sense of being slightly worn and aged. Take a close look at the skeletons holding the eyeballs - it looks like the artist added this fine detail right at the very end, like it almost wasn't there at all! The whole composition is kind of surreal, isn’t it? It’s like Magritte meets a Day of the Dead celebration! I guess what I like most about this piece is how it embraces this idea of art as a conversation, this back-and-forth between different ideas and images. It makes me wonder, what other conversations are happening within this work?