Koen van den Broek: Torque #7, 2013, oil canvas, 98 1/2 inches square. Courtesy Friedman Benda.
Koen van den Broek’s paintings-in black and white, plus a couple of contrasting colors (orange and blue, for example, or pink and yellow)-give off a sense of frantic activity. As it turns out, the canvases in van den Broek’s new “Torque” series are based on his own earlier paintings of easily overlooked urban details, like sidewalk cracks, shadows cast by electricity poles and forgotten overpasses.