‘‘Parcel’’, Michael Greaves
(Inge Doesburg Gallery)
With his current exhibition, ‘‘Parcel’’, at Inge Doesburg Gallery, Michael Greaves presents a suite of small, elegant abstract paintings (acrylic on linen) that continue his experimentation with form and spatial arrangement. This suite of paintings retains a dialogue with Greaves’ earlier body of work, ‘‘Excessive Memory’’, particularly the use of circular shapes and negative space. One of the key developments in this latest body of work is the way in which Greaves layers up the canvas with thin washes of acrylic. Beneath washes of yellow or fleshy peach the viewer can perceive earlier painterly landscapes gleaming through. In some instances, Greaves has ‘‘cut out’’, as it were, shapes in the top layer of paint. These negative shapes function as a type of portal through to other painterly worlds and create an unexpected quality of depth to what would traditionally be flat abstract surfaces.
‘‘Parcel’’ includes paintings that were exhibited in July at Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, alongside new works, which are striking in their use of textured, murky grey washes over colourful backgrounds. Ultimately, what coheres this body of work is a family resemblance of repeated shapes and a skilful modulation of colour. When these two attributes are combined with Greaves’ technique of multiple layers, he is able to achieve a dynamic sense of space that shifts between worlds.