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Out of Darkness · 2023
Black Square
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
The response to Malevich — black at full scale, the square as the Out of Darkness series' engagement with the most serious gesture in abstract art history.
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.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 8 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 9 ft or more
- Light
- Low ambient light amplifies luminous passages — dark-wall installation ideal
- Daylight
- Matte black and charcoal hold their color, but a full square of dark like this goes dull and flat in direct Arizona sun. Hang it out of the window's beam, where the lilac gray edges can still register.
Lives best in
Hotel lobby 5/5
At five feet square with 45 pounds of physical authority, this work anchors a lobby the way nothing quieter can, turning the entry moment into a threshold rather than a corridor.
Living room 4/5
Black Square rewards a living room with low ambient light and genuine wall depth, where its matte black field and lilac gray passages can breathe and shift as daylight moves across them.
Details
- Size
- 5 × 5 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Year
- 2023
- Collection
- Out of Darkness
- Palette
- Matte Black · Graphite · Charcoal · Lilac Gray
- Weight
- About 45 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 8–12 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Trillium
- Texture3
- Form1
- Colour range1
- Palette4.4
- Contrast3.3
- Abstraction Quotient5
