Black land, black sky (Drawing with fingers) 2007

Curator: Wow. The stark contrast is immediately gripping, isn’t it? Makes me feel a little claustrophobic, like something's closing in. Editor: Indeed. Here we have Alfred Freddy Krupa's "Black land, black sky (Drawing with fingers)," created in 2007. The use of ink in what's described as gestural painting underscores an intense focus on process. Curator: "Drawing with fingers"... knowing that, I can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the surface. There’s a directness to the application, a raw physicality that I love. I wonder what kind of paper Krupa used to take such intensity from the gestural strokes? Editor: Considering that, it is tempting to see this artwork within a lineage of matter painting and Abstract Expressionism—examining its ties to labour. The texture of the brushstrokes speaks of an act, performance of making. I feel tension through it. Curator: The tension! Yes. And this tension emerges despite that absence of traditional imagery. It transcends mere representation. It makes me want to dance. Editor: Perhaps, yes. I notice too, the economic nature of materials and their accessibility may encourage gestural art which relies less on elaborate equipment, instead of promoting pure expression by available materials. What happens to the economy affects not only its subjects but it’s object in which to perform in making art. Curator: Absolutely, but doesn't it feel, ironically, boundless and primal despite its dark tone? Almost primordial in some aspects? Editor: I concur, given abstraction removes all direct meaning except pure emotion translated into materiality, allowing only matter, gesture, the artist, and society's effects to exist as objects of attention, one has more than sufficient avenues for interpretations to come. Curator: It certainly provides that space, doesn’t it? Well, thanks for shining new light on this piece, it makes me even more grateful and humble as the light pours into this painting, with its heavy themes and gesture based lines, and black lands. Editor: Likewise, I have found a different understanding on Krupa’s work in materiality through expression, its labour and intention giving breath into a different context that gives this new point to its appeal.