Ascendant I 2019

Here's Aaron Nagel’s painting, Ascendant I. He's an artist born in 1980. I can imagine Aaron building up the color slowly, layer by layer. What do you think he might have been thinking when he made it? The paint feels thin and translucent. He's not afraid of the surface showing through, and the warm colors give it a sense of light. A pale halo hangs suspended around the woman. I remember once trying to paint a portrait, and I was so caught up in getting the likeness right that I forgot about the paint itself. But Aaron here reminds us that painting isn't just about representation. It's also about the materiality of the medium. All the painters are in conversation together. We learn from each other, steal from each other, and push each other to see the world in new ways. It's an embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.