Mutation IV (COVID-19 series) 2020 acrylic on canvas, 78 1/2 x 72 1/2 inches. David Castillo Gallery
In the piece Mutation IV, language becomes critical to Novoa’s translation of the virus from a real biological and cultural agent into one that is conceived pictorially in symbolic terms. Letters and word fragments break through from under or between the digressing designs of a piece, never fully realizing a complete expression but articulating just enough for the viewer to fill in what is lost amid the tumult of the painted patterns. Novoa leads his audience to a reading of the work but does not offer it to them forthright, implying the need for similar treatment—a closer, more nuanced consideration of a message not so easily revealed—for the paintings in the exhibition.