louis block on the “thingliest paintings” of thomas nozkowski.
What would it mean for a painting to be described as disclosure, a hardening of a specificity, but also a lightness? It goes back to the thing-ness of this whole thing, the perception of certain forms as having agency based on certain characteristics. The thingliest paintings are worked-over, messy surfaces that cohere into ecstatic designations that are felt, not named. No coincidence that thing, in Old English, meant meeting, assembly, matter. Nozkowski’s paintings can conflate a speck of dust with the dimple in an old smile. The optical ringing that they create, clarion also in the shoulder and wrist, is worth more than words.
— Louis Block, “Thomas Nozkowski: Everything in the World,” Brooklyn Rail, April 2024