Black Square
Medium: Mixed Media on Canvas
Size: 5ft x 5ft
Creation Date: 2023
Collection: Out of Darkness
Black Square (2023) is a confrontation with simplicity — and an invitation into its depths. Part of the Out of Darkness Collection, this 62 x 62 inch mixed media painting echoes and reimagines the legacy of Kazimir Malevich’s iconic work. But here, the black square is not an end point. It is a beginning.
Constructed from layers of charcoal pigment, matte black acrylic, graphite dust, and subtle sheen, the surface resists uniformity. It shifts in the light, revealing hidden textures — scratches, seams, and moments of rupture beneath the flatness. The square is imperfect, almost trembling. It breathes.
Where Malevich sought transcendence through void, I seek presence through imperfection. This Black Square is not an assertion of purity, but of process — of emotional layering, of shadow as space, of silence filled with texture.
The piece aligns in spirit with Ad Reinhardt, whose black paintings reward stillness and close attention. But my approach is more tactile. I want the blackness to feel lived in — not austere, but weathered.
In a world saturated with noise and color, Black Square offers a pause. A still point. A visual koan. What do we see when there is seemingly nothing to see?
As part of the Out of Darkness Collection, this painting suggests that even the darkest fields contain subtle radiance. It’s not about mystery. It’s about listening — to surface, to absence, to what the eye almost misses.
