Sigh Stain 2018

Soey Milk made this painting, Sigh Stain, with a delicious honeyed palette that seems to glow from within. It’s the kind of painting that feels as though it emerged rather than was constructed, like a stain, or a memory. There’s so much going on with the materiality; areas where the paint is translucent, sitting on the surface, next to other areas of thick impasto that feel like they’ve been sculpted. The surface is alive with marks, translucent flowers seem to both float on the surface and be trapped within the viscous paint, like a memory suspended in time. Look at the way she’s offset the realistic rendering of the woman’s face with the more abstract gestures of the background, it’s the kind of tension between representation and abstraction that you also see in the work of someone like Cecily Brown. Ultimately, this piece resists any fixed meaning, instead, it invites us into a space of contemplation.