PPMA3 - Possibly Powerful Modern Art

This collection's theme pertains to the things depicted by its works. Not all are overtly powerful, but some are simply an expression of strength, others are implicit, and yet others are provocative and maintain their power through uncertainty. Starting off, Dissolved Surface is the latest example of its archetype, leveraging its theme to give a whole new impression. The flat, bordered inwards gradient from a white to black through a faded purple, all textured across with honeycomb-patterned depressions, is meant to give the impression of a hole, one that has been eaten through by the noisy dust flecks that cover the entire space. Next, Melted Marshmallow is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, a mostly empty black work with a stylized portrayal of its subject towards the top. Melting a marshmallow is not a difficult task, but someone seems to have undertaken it anyway, and what does that imply? The recurring rainbow motif has been repurposed in this work and placed in the background as observers, which gives a different tone to the scene. Warning Germination is fairly abstract, focusing more on using its limited color palette than on presenting a concrete image. This it does well, using excellent shading to contrast the intense orange on one side of the image with the sickly green-yellow on the other side, and making use of a darker green for distinguishing lines and contours, as well as the familiar blackness of negative space to provide division and distance. The position and orientation of the subjects on the right half of the image are the focus here, with the orange on the left edge serving as a fixture to provide illumination, anxiety, and mood-setting. Concealed From a Beam portrays one being's fear of another's power, using the beam archetype in the background but a static, if somewhat more unstable than usual, white-pink area in the foreground. The digital texture that characterizes the beam in the background has not yet made it to the foreground, but the faint, tight gridded pattern from the background has managed to encroach, giving a sense of urgency. And finally of note, my personal favorite work this week is Rending Apocalypse, one of this gallery's premier examples of stellar coloring, texturing, shading, and overall composition. The rough digital texture in the background allows for a uniquely graded style of gradient that the color choices only enhance; this shading style is used to give both an impression of depth and to imply how things are falling apart; especially when it transitions into a dithering fade as deep blackness consumes the area around it. The work's foreground is no less intense and detailed, its sharp and visceral shapes serving as a symbol of determination and resistance - those things hanging on in the midst of the calamity. There is a lot of potential symbolism to be found in this work. Please enjoy!