Paintings by Stephen Maine and Melissa Staiger
Sculpture by Naomi Cohn 

Opening reception with the artists
Sat, Oct 8, 2-5 pm

John Molloy Gallery is excited to present TECHNIC/COLOR, featuring the work of three abstract artists who investigate the interplay of materials, procedures, and chromatic sensation. Attentive to surface and scale, alert to the possibilities of visual humor, each of these artists has developed both a distinctive palette and an idiosyncratic approach to the mechanics of their studio process.

Stephen Maine has shown widely for the past thirty years. Having adapted the techniques of relief printmaking to the pictorial aims of painting, he forgoes the loaded brush in favor of paint-laden surfaces that function as printing plates. The resulting ‘residue paintings’ balance calibrated color relationships against the chance effects of the artist’s intentionally imprecise technique. Maine lives and works in West Cornwall, Connecticut.

In the past decade, Brooklyn-based Melissa Staiger has had numerous exhibitions in the New York area and beyond. Her compact, dense paintings strongly suggest an iconic figural presence that transcends their robust physicality. Her purposeful geometric layers of color complement the apparently arbitrary quality of Maine’s ‘residues.’

Saturated color and active surfaces are also primary in Naomi Cohn’s ceramics, which embody elements of painting and sculpture in a personal take on gestural abstraction. The ambivalence of heft and lift are rooted, perhaps, in the artist’s training and experience as a dancer. For Cohn, the spirit of play is ‘the organizing principle of my practice.’ She lives and works in Bedford, New York.

John Molloy Gallery is located at 49 East 78 St., suite 2B, New York, NY. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday, 12:00 to 5:00 and Saturday, 12:00 to 5:00. TECHNIC/COLOR continues through November 12, 2022.