Studio Visit with Liat Yossifor
This studio visit took place over Zoom, just before the work was about to ship to New York, for Liat Yossifor’s upcoming exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery.
LR- I noticed a shift in the work since your review “Contemplating Disembodiment in the Work of Liat Yossifor” for your exhibition at Fox Jensen gallery in Australia in 2020. Can you describe in which ways the work changed?
LY — Since the show at Fox Jensen, motifs and images that were previously buried underneath thick paint, are now showing up at the surface level. Before, there was a play between action and monochrome. I used to think of the action as heat and the monochrome as a cold body of paint that was holding it back. Now, image-making and impasto paint move together, side by side, to mold a pictorial mass. I would say that image is now being prioritized over material. It sounds simple, but intention is reversed when image is prioritized. It’s a different mindset, especially that, before, I had tried at times to resist imagery altogether.
LR- A long time ago, you did portraits that were buried in monochromatic fields. Recently, you continue to paint in a seemingly monochromatic way that is activated by opposite hues in action with each other. This has been described as ‘cancellation’ or ‘annihilation of action and mark’. What is your specific interest in the monochrome? What…
