“Don’t Kill It By Naming It” serie

DON’T KILL IT BY NAMING IT serie, 2023
Ink, smoked wood, mother-of-pearl pigment on sumi paper, framed in ash wood with black graphite pigment and anti-reflective Artglass.

Evy Bosman’s works deceive our eyes while simultaneously drawing attention to the act of decep- tion itself. Her drawings come astonishingly close to reality while remaining entirely abstract. It’s as though the infinity of the universe has been made tangible before our eyes.

Upon closer inspection of the series, the illusion gives way to the materiality of manipulated paper. We can thus conclude that, like any other artistic practice, looking is a constructed process. This series, “Don’t Kill It By Naming It, 2023,” challenges our eyes, our minds, and our imagination.

Delay, fixation, specification, and proximity are the essential modes that shape Bosman’s works.

The depictions of a lightning strike on the sea during her stay in Venice served as inspiration for this series. To create these works, she smoked and ground various types of wood and finely crushed mother-of-pearl pigments from oyster shells into inks applied to Japanese sumi paper, combined with graphite. These materials encourage us to simultaneously let our gaze wander into the dis- tance and focus on every small detail.

Shades of black are an artistic element that Bosman repeatedly presents in new ways, through countless variations in color usage and the use of different mediums and tools.

The new series of works, “Don’t Kill It By Naming It, 2023,” reveal the surprises and inconsistencies of memory and contemplate the liminal space between reality and reflections. As a result, this ironic engagement with reality and truth opens an exciting dialogue that spans artistic genres and art historical eras.

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