She is halfway through the turn. Her shoulder has already committed, and the rest of her is about to follow.
A dancer, mid-spin, in profile. Behind her, a Harlem water tower sits flat and calm against two blocks of colour. Everything else in the picture is moving.
Look at which way the colour goes
The magenta trail arcs the wrong way. Not behind her, where a trail should be, but ahead of her, into the space she has not reached yet. So the colour is arriving half a second before the body does. She is not leaving anything behind. She is pulling what comes next toward her.
Once you see it you cannot unsee it, and it is the reason this picture feels like good news.
Naomi Brooks paints people this way on purpose. Thick black contour, deep warm skin, and then the hair and the air around the head bursting into magenta, cobalt, gold, emerald. The colour always grows out of the figure. And she will not show you the face. Her people do not pose for you.
What happens once it is up
It makes a room sound louder in a good way. It is the piece a friend clocks from the doorway before they have taken their coat off. As one critic put it, “the vibrant brushstrokes erupting from the dancer make this piece a standout in any room.”
Getting it on your wall
Matte canvas with a visible weave, wrapped over a solid wood frame an inch and a quarter deep, and it comes stretched and ready to hang. One nail and you are done. No frame to buy, no glass throwing your ceiling light back at you. The image runs around the edges, so it looks finished from the side too.
Portrait. Most people take the 16 x 20 in (40.6 x 50.8 cm) at $149. The 12 x 16 in works beside a doorway; the 18 x 24 in holds a bigger wall on its own. Made to order, so nobody else on your street has this one, and shipping is free in the continental US.
One honest thing
It is loud. If you like quiet neutrals, this will fight you. If you want a wall that feels confident, take it home — or go through the rest of Naomi’s work first, and follow her so you catch the next one early.
