Inside White

The stridently anti-modernist paintings of Lisa Abbott-Canfield, currently on view at Jason Rulnick’s Fifth Avenue gallery, offer the perfect escape from New York’s hustle and bustle. Her paintings resist making big statements, and, in fact, the rather intimate and liminal works appear to melt right into the walls, especially during the afternoon when natural light fills the space. Up close, however, they do not explore formlessness per se; instead they engage in a sort of autobiographical mark-making that appears to avoid self-definition. That in itself is a kind of rejection of formlessness – or abstraction for that matter. If this work superficially references artists like Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Diebenkorn or Myron Stout, then it is created more in opposition to them than inspired by them.

 The series of untitled 24 x 24 in. oil paintings are mostly white or a very muted color, which is then divided into spaces that are less geometrical than organic. The thin, quiet surfaces are not the kind made in the heat of the moment but slowly over time in the studio. Their paradox is that they seem to demand attention even as they hide in plain sight. For this reason, the painter’s flowing lines and allusions to motion or dance stand in sharp contrast to the mostly secondary market works usually seen in the gallery, which argue for a rational, objective view of the world. Maybe Abbott-Canfield would beg to disagree?

Untitled, 2008-2010. Courtesy of the Artist and Jason Rulnick, Inc, New York.

"Inside White" is on view at Jason Rulnick, Inc. in New York through May 24, 2010.

Chris Cobb is a writer and artist whose work has appeared in a number of publications including the Believer, Flash Art, Artweek, Leonardo magazine and SFMOMA's Open Space.