Alexander Okenyo’s paintings and drawings patiently seek, hold and focus our attention. Each careful line is a counting stroke, a scratch to mark a passing, and from a distance, the marks effect a soft glow, a pale, cool light, as the artist tends to time intentionally spent.
Monotonal and meditative, Okenyo’s subjects are simple and silent. A bowl that catches the last light on its rim, an apple, an eye, a field of flowers in darkness. Partial figures caught in a moment of rest, repose or death; stillness is paramount to the image and instructive to the viewer.
There is a haunting though in all of this quiet: Okenyo singles out the fractured part as if under the blue light of an x-ray. The artist’s radiative attention to detail, painting as examination, mark making as exposure – but the discovery is stayed within the image as stillness descends like darkness.
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