The Model 2016

Adam Caldwell's "The Model" is a 20th-century oil painting that feels as though it has been built up slowly in layers, each one obscuring the one beneath. Look at the thick impasto brushstrokes around the subject's head, so physical that it almost feels sculptural. There is a push and pull between abstraction and figuration here, with strokes of browns, reds, and blacks that give a sense of fleeting recognition. The paint is applied with an almost desperate energy, as if the artist is trying to capture something before it disappears entirely. Then, you see those piercingly blue eyes that seem to stare right through you, connecting the portrait to our world. It makes me think of Francis Bacon’s distorted figures, or maybe even some of Jenny Saville's fleshy portraits. But Caldwell brings his own sensibility here, one that feels both urgent and vulnerable. Like a conversation across time, art reminds us that there is always more to see.