Barbara Kasten

at Bortolami Gallery

Construct LB-5, 1982

Curiosity drives you. Just as a butterfly flies to a light (a construct in the lower left corner), you are moved toward a black hole of Unknown (upper right corner). Your wings are desire(red) and mystery(black). After getting some height(accumulating some knowledge) and crossing some lines (red line from the center to upper middle), you understand the more you know the less the subject is clear. The desire to explore the unknown really opens up the wings(the red figure in the right part of the painting).

Dan Bayles

at François Ghebaly Gallery (Frieze Art Fair New York 2012)

Interior #2, 2009

Voyeurism. Everyone likes to peep. You know it is wrong. You know it is not appropriate, but still you slightly separate those slides to peek. Our fondness of mysteries and  our craving for new things win over the moral. We always are looking for something new, something unknown, a mystery. But there is not much to look at. The entire mystery is the neighbor mowing his lawn.

Josef Albers

at Galerie Vedovi(TEFAF Maastricht 2012)

 

Study for Homage to the Square, 1961

Square is a perfect figure. Anyway you look it is the same. The perfect square has only the squares inside.But nothing is perfect (the inner squares are off center). The inner squares are darker, more mysterious. The perfect orange square that is attracts you initially. The unknown inner imperfect squares create a tunnel that draws you in. This combination builds a new love.

Weekend Edition 22

Jackson Pollock

Male Female

This is a date. You can feel a lot of flirtation in the air with undertones of desire. Information intake is in the overdrive (ears, eyes are all over the place). Some things are put in the open( the white rectangle in the center). But most of them are behind folding screens that with time would be taken down. Some bits of personal information are strung together. The missing pieces are calculated behind the scenes(the black rectangle with white chalked numbers). There are a lot of unknown - mystery that really attracts you.

Rosy Keyser

Rosy Keyser at Peter Blum Gallery

Folk Conjugation, 2007

You know how you should proceed. You have a clear path ahead of you(the bright branches from the lower left corner to the upper right middle). You even have an alternative plan. It is more risky, but it looks more interesting (the bright branches from the lower right corner). You know that all. But strangely you are extremely attractive to an unknown way (the bright spots behind the branches in the lower left corner). You don't know how it is going to end. It is scary to go where nobody went before. But the unknown lures you in. The desire is so strong, you can't resist it.

Mary Weatherford

Mary Weatherford at Brennan & Griffin

black cave, 2011

The Cave is black, scary and unknown(the black overlapping figure). When you enter the cave, you feel fear(black). But under the fear there is hope and curiosity (blue smudges at the bottom). Those two takes you deeper and deeper inside.You think you will find something interesting, if not valuable(yellow background in the upper right). And when you return from your adventure, you are hoping you will sit with your friends, drink wine(burgundy on the left side) and tell stories about the cave. The overall figure looks like a slice of bread. Black bread. It's just a reminder that it is dangerous and you can get "burned" any minute.  But it's like food for you, you cannot live without adventures.

Weekend Edition 7

Georgia O’Keeffe

Grey Line With Black Blue And Yellow

Grey Line is a normal, ordinary person. She is so bleak and uninterested that you don't see her at all, except for the pink makeup (at the corners). But if you push deeper, you will discover a world. the more you explore the more you are amazed by vibrant colors, wild jungle of personality layers. you will find Black as the most compelling color. Black is the Unknown. It attracts, it pulls you in. The Unknown motivates you to explore. Love is exploration of the Unknown.