Succi, Monica Cook
Oil on Canvas

It’s the authentically flawed, flushed skin, hints of green suggesting vein, slick with a sweat that could come from passion as much as panic that turns my stomach in this amazing oil painting by Monica Cook.

It’s an expert study in opacity: unstylised, matter-of-fact human forms clutch each other desperately (or ecstatically) whilst they struggle to extricate themselves from (or commune with) a bizarre, cthonic creature. Careful, farcical attention is paid to the accessories and footwear the faceless protagonists sport, whilst a Dionysian feast putrifies amongst them.