Untitled 2022

This "Untitled" piece is by Alevtyna Kakhidze. It’s hard to know exactly when it was made, but the quick, gestural marks suggest a real urgency. The artist uses what looks like marker and maybe some colored pencil to create a pretty raw, immediate image. I'm really drawn to the way the color is blocked in, almost like a kid's drawing, but with a kind of subversive edge. The blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, for example, slapped across the back of a cartoon-like animal. And then all the names, scrawled and listed. It’s like a visual poem or a political rant, all crammed onto one page. That skeletal arm reaching up on the left is especially striking. It’s so raw and vulnerable, yet there's also a strength in its simplicity. It reminds me a bit of some of Philip Guston’s later work, that same kind of directness and willingness to be messy. It embraces a kind of ambiguity and the multiple ways we experience the world.