Installation view, Patricia Treib, 2013, Courtesy of the gallery.

Installation view, Patricia Treib, 2013, Courtesy of the gallery.

Currently on view at Wallspace, New York is an exhibition of new paintings by New York based artist Patricia Treib. Treib’s paintings are composed around sensuous details, absences, and shifts in perspective. While her work draws on far-ranging references – a hand glimpsed in an early 15th Century Russian icon, the outline of a sleeve in a Piero della Francesca fresco, the contours of a 35 mm camera or a glass clock – Treib’s true subject is the process of looking, through which she discovers new relationships while dismantling what is merely recognizable.

Treib focuses on the space between forms, making in-betweenness a primary motif. She frequently removes, adjusts and repeats precise configurations and flourishes. Peripheral elements become central presences, suggesting icons or calligraphic gestures in flux, riding on an assured, almost giddy sense of movement. A particular energy derives from Treib’s distinctive use of color, which can seem at once delicate, dynamic, and measured.

Patricia Treib is on view through December 21, 2013.

For more information visit Wallspace, New York.