Twilight 2020

Monica Ikegwu made "Twilight" with oil paints. It’s a portrait bathed in strong light—harsh even—and set against a lilac background. I get this feeling that Ikegwu is working within a lineage. Maybe she has seen some Alice Neel portraits, or maybe some Marlene Dumas? Who knows, but the painting has a real painterly feeling, like paint is the vehicle to understanding. There is a directness and freshness to the approach. She really makes the light zing. The darks are dark, and the lights are light, and the color is allowed to vibrate within those extremes. Look at how the bright highlights on the subject’s lip contrast with the deeper tones around it. The painting feels like a snapshot in time but also a real labor of love. It’s cool how art can do that. Each brushstroke is a record of the artist's hand, her observations, her decisions. Painting is a language that has no right or wrong answers.