Archangel 2007

Oleh Denysenko’s Archangel is a painting where figuration meets with... well, let’s call it ‘spirit’. I can imagine him in the studio, smearing away at this heavily textured surface with broad strokes of ochre, which somehow conjure the gold of the angel’s halo. The artist’s hand has really worked the paint, hasn't it? Look closely, and you'll notice how those tactile ridges define the Archangel's form. There's a certain folk-art feeling here - a kind of naivety. It is like a contemporary take on an ancient Byzantine icon. But Denysenko has stripped away the usual piety, I reckon. Instead, the Archangel almost looks like a kid dressed up for a play, don’t you think? It makes you think about how art can bring together the sacred and the everyday, tradition and the utterly contemporary. It reminds us that artists are always riffing off one another, remixing and reinterpreting motifs that have traveled through time.