Katja Farin’s Lines from Arguments

The etymology of “spouse” comes from the verb “to bind.” In Spanish, the word for wife is the same as handcuff. In Katja Farin’s “Lines from Arguments,” currently on view at Lubov NYC, ropes and nets function as both boundaries and tethers between two people stuck in close proximity. Catatonic, anonymous figures are rendered in a colour palette of decomposing fruit, closed in by flat patterns and blocks of dullness. Both Farin’s composition and subjects, who are confined to waiting room like spaces, indicate a feeling of strain. Derived from a single line plucked from an argument, the paintings illustrate escalating tensions in a relationship. The LA artist says her characters are injected with the feeling of purgatory and precarity. These modestly sized works remind me of Vuillard – layered scratchy application, earthy tones and 2-dimensional spaces. Farin’s strength is in her resisting the urge to add a splash of green on a red composition. “Lines from Arguments” is on view online at Lubov NYC, in collaboration with in lieu, until April 26th. – Claire Milbrath