Ontological Inquiry
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 4ft x 4ft
Creation Date: 2024
Collection: Playful Abstraction
Ontological Inquiry (2024) is a visual question — a philosophical gesture rendered in form, color, and spatial uncertainty. This 48 x 48 inch acrylic painting from the Playful Abstraction collection explores the tension between presence and perception, between structure and suggestion.
The composition is dominated by interwoven rectangles — some sharply defined, others softened by translucent overlays. A field of pale ivory acts as stage, while blocks of muted red, soft black, and golden beige shift positions like thoughts in motion. Negative space becomes as meaningful as shape.
I painted Ontological Inquiry during a period of deep reading — Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, ancient Vedic texts. But this painting isn’t academic. It’s intuitive. It is inquiry by touch, by mark, by pause.