"Karin Davie has been a masterful brushstroke painter since she first began exhibiting in the early 1990s. She creates in series, establishing a distinct linear form that the brushstroke takes, and repeating it. She has worked in lines, loops, and slow, undulating waves. The paintings teem with paradoxes, starting with her synthesis of two divergent styles, the painterly mark of Abstract Expressionism and the opticality of Op Art."
"All of these qualities are featured in her aptly named exhibition It Comes In Waves at Miles McEnery Gallery. The show consists of eight tonally monochromatic paintings, six of them on a shaped canvas (all 2025). Each piece is composed of horizontal strokes that span the width of the canvas, resulting in an overall image of sensuously wavy ribbons. Painted on a dark rose ground, "Trespasser 1" has a pinkish-rose palette with white mixed in."
Karin Davie has painted distinctive brushstroke series since the early 1990s, defining linear forms—lines, loops, and undulating waves—and repeating them to compose each work. Her practice synthesizes the painterly mark of Abstract Expressionism with the optical effects of Op Art, producing paradoxical visual experiences. She varies each brushstroke and color choice, sometimes blending multiple colors within a single mark while revealing and withholding control. The exhibition It Comes In Waves features eight tonally monochromatic paintings (all 2025), most on shaped canvases, composed of horizontal strokes that layer and modulate to create sensuous, wavering surfaces.
Read at Hyperallergic
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