Sanya Kantarovsky (Russian, born 1982). Mind the Gap, 2016. Oil, watercolor, oil stick, and pastel on canvas; 55 x 40 inches (139.7 x 101.6 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of Mrs. Seymour H. Knox, Sr., by exchange and Gift of Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild, by exchange, 2016 (2016:5). © 2016 Sanya Kantarovsky.
Like many of Sanya Kantarovsky’s most engaging paintings, Mind the Gap is a tightly composed representation of a fleeting narrative. In the foreground, a woman and a dog affectionately stare into each other’s eyes. Another figure, a pouty, red-faced child, looks directly at us. It is unclear whether the man in the background, who is striding by under an archway, is fixated on the scene within the painting or bearing witness to our own spectatorship. The matrix of gazes embedded within Kantarovsky’s composition serves as a symbol of the intense dynamic that can be ingrained in a relationship, provoking feelings of total belonging or complete ownership.
Label from Menagerie: Animals on View, March 11–June 4, 2017
![[Man with Fish on Head]](/sites/default/files/styles/fixed_height_sm/public/artwork/P1999_006_011_o2.jpg?itok=3UeQWceU)
