Michael Wilson

August 03, 2021, 3:19pm

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Kimberly Brooks

Written by Michael Wilson

The sky fades from a deep red-brown down to a dusty pink above an indistinct horizon. Mountains slope down to a valley, their surfaces muted shades of orange and ochre marked by patches of more strident mustard yellow and wine red. Areas of dirty blue-green denote a river flowing between them—or perhaps this is nothing more than a mirage, a side effect of the crepuscular light. In the center of the scene, a broad, diagonal stroke in shades of vegetal green sweeps up and to the right before coming to an abrupt halt. Occupied by its own distinct scene, it suggests a portal into another landscape altogether—or perhaps the same site at a different point in time. The mysterious interruption pulls the rug from under the onlooker’s feet, disrupting the comfortable illusion of a single, unified subject and reminding us of the confusions and conflations that painting necessarily entails. We’re looking at something that is at once modest and expansive, materially real and an absolute illusion, figurative and abstract.

Kimberly Brooks, Red Canyon, 2021, oil on panel, 20 x 16 inches