COVID-19
In a year of no touching, Liat Yossifor’s solo show of recent work at Patron provides a welcome balm, full of paintings as tactile as those of early childhood. Letters Apart features a dozen small framed oils on paper, made as part of a daily practice, and one large canvas that, under the strange circumstances of the pandemic, overwhelms with more stimulus that I, for one, can handle. Oozy, rich and visceral, Yossifor’s paintings look to have been created by dragging fingers on clay, a knife through frosting, anything but a delicate brush in paint. The outcomes are less images than evidence of tactile experiment, records of sinuous strokes, short dabs, smooth blends. The colors are neutral with exciting daubs of color. The end results have a 1950s feel that is hard to know quite what to do with, so maybe don’t. This has been a year where all rules were broken; the antidotes will inevitably do so, too.
—Lori Waxman 2021-03-16 2:34 PM