Portraits
Heads that look like people. After a summer of masks, the faces in this room have brows, lids, cheeks and worried eyes. They wear hats. Some are painted, some are a single line, and a few are skulls lit by colored beams. Twenty-three works from August 20 to October 5, 2022.
The eyes do the work. A mask's eyes are rings and spirals; these eyes have whites, pupils and lids, and most of them look somewhere. An old man looks past you. A woman with pink hair looks down. A face in blue line looks straight out with tears on its cheeks.
Watch what happens on October 3, when three portraits are drawn in a morning with almost no color, in a single wandering line. After them the room closes with two round heads in goggles, each with words beside it.
Painted Faces
August 20 to September 2. A head in black scribble on red, an old man with worried eyes, and a face on yellow with a red target for one eye.
NNOTB #234
A head drawn in heavy black scribble on red, its face a tangle of pink line, a single yellow bar across the eyes like a blindfold.
NNOTB #260
An old man's face fills the square, painted in grey, green and yellow with scribble over it, his eyes wide and unmatched, his mouth open on a row of teeth. The brow is furrowed and the cheeks are hollow. Blocks of blue, green, yellow and red stand around him like a wall. It is the first face in the collection that looks frightened, and with 267 recorded strokes one of the most worked in the room.
NNOTB #267
A head on yellow, painted in grey and green, with a red spiral target for one eye and a red cross for the other, its teeth bared, a striped collar below.
Hats and Beams
September 6 to 8. Figures lit by beams, a wrapped head in goggles, a man in a bucket hat, a profile in line, and a face under a top hat.
NNOTB #272
Two dark figures stand against black, each with two glowing yellow eyes, and beams of gold pour from the eyes down to the lower left.
NNOTB #275
A head wrapped in white bandages on yellow, with two round black goggles and a grin of pointed teeth.
NNOTB #276
A man in a green bucket hat, painted in pink and brown, with two round glasses over two round eyes and a round open mouth. His neck is thin and his shoulders are lost in a town of blocks and lines in red, blue and black. The hat is drawn in green and black with the brim turned down. He is the first person in the collection to wear a hat and glasses.
NNOTB #277
A profile in line on dark green: a head with yellow hair, a pink face, one eye looking out, and a blue coat, drawn in thirty-seven strokes.
NNOTB #281
A red face under a black top hat, with two yellow crowns for eyes, a bar of white teeth and a row of yellow beads across the brow, on dark red.
Skulls in Colored Light
September 14 to 22. A hatted face with fangs, a scribbled face with teeth, three skulls lit by beams, a gridded face and a woman with pink hair.
NNOTB #282
A face in a black hat with a spiral eye and a red eye, a mustache, a mouth of fangs, and green dots floating beside it, on a ground of blue stripes.
NNOTB #283
A painted face in grey and gold with a tangle of colored scribble over it, two round eyes, and a mouth of white teeth in a red frame.
NNOTB #286
A skull on lavender, painted in purple, green and pink, with a beam of color crossing its eyes from the left, and a row of white teeth at the bottom. One eye socket is filled with grey and red rings; the other is dark. Thin yellow and blue lines wander over the ground. The skull is the one in the room that is almost a face, with a nose and lips drawn in, and the color is the softest.
NNOTB #287
A skull in grey, green and purple on a ground of soft olive circles, its eyes two dark hollows, a rainbow beam crossing from the left.
NNOTB #288
A face in black and orange line on tan, its brow ruled like a grid, two round grey eyes, and a mouth of white bars.
NNOTB #289
A woman with pink hair looks down on tan, her face orange, her eyes two blue rings, her mouth a row of white marks, in a blue coat.
NNOTB #290
A skull in the dark, painted in black and grey with yellow and red line, two beams coming in from the sides to meet at the eyes, a row of white teeth below. Where the lavender skull was soft and lit from one side, this one is lit from both, and the light is the only color. Black fingers reach up from the bottom edge.
Compare with #286, in this room
NNOTB #292
A hatted face with a spiral eye, a mouth of white bars and a beam from the left, in a field of colored rays, drawn in yellow and black line.
NNOTB #293
A cat-eared face in purple, pink and green with one huge eye and one small, a mouth of fangs, on dark navy.
NNOTB #294
A face under a black top hat, split into a dark red side and a yellow side, with two eyes of different sizes, a grin of white teeth, and two white-gloved hands below.
Three in a Morning
October 3, 2022. Three portraits in a single line, drawn in three hours, then two round heads in goggles to close the room.
NNOTB #295
A face on blue drawn in one black line, with tan patches for the cheeks, two eyes with white tears, a red mouth, and yellow zigzag for the hair. A hand rises at the left. The line wanders from the brow down the nose to the chin without lifting, and the color is laid on in a few flat patches. It is the first of three portraits drawn that morning.
NNOTB #296
A face on yellow drawn in black and red line, a tear on each cheek, red lips, the hair a loop of orange and black, drawn an hour and twenty minutes later.
NNOTB #297
A face on olive drawn in yellow, black and red line, a red mouth the only solid mark, drawn in twenty-seven strokes an hour after the second, the sparest of the three.
Compare with #295, in this room
NNOTB #298
A round yellow head on black with pink spots on its scalp, blue goggles, a mouth of white bars, and the words GRIFTERS GONNA GRIFT and INKERS GONNA INK written in blue beside it.
NNOTB #299
A round blue head on black with yellow spikes standing up from its scalp, pink goggles, and a sunburst for a mouth, with INKERS GONNA INK at the lower left. The day after the yellow head, the same shape returns in the opposite colors, with a beam of gold falling from the mouth. It is the last portrait in the collection, drawn October 5, 2022.
Compare with #298, in this roomClosing
Look again at the old man from August, painted in a hundred small strokes with his eyes wide, and then at the face from October 3 drawn in one line with a tear on each cheek. The second has a tenth of the strokes. Both are faces that look at something, and that is what sets this room apart from the masks.