Each of Richard Tinkler’s paintings is made in a single day, and the skilled improvisation of working with wet paint comes across in his crisp handling of color and intense layering of line. As liquid strokes pile on top of one another, a weaving effect occurs, creating geometric shapes that float, drift, and melt away. At the modest scale of 30 by 40 inches, the patterning does not overwhelm, but rather, begins to evoke tapestries and other intricate fiber arts. In Untitled #94 (all works 2017), short dashes of prismatic hues compose a kaleidoscopic grid. In Untitled #97, a softly rendered grid creates the image of structured haze. Accompanying the paintings are a selection of tight pen drawings and a copy of the third volume of Tomorrow’s Man magazine, an update of mid-century physique pictorials published by artist Jack Pierson, to which Tinkler contributed artwork. Between this light-hearted addition and the sentimental Virginia Woolf quote on the press release, it is made clear that Tinkler is not after another cold take on geometric abstraction; he is steaming up the traditional grid, mark by mark. —Emma Faith Hill
Pictured: Richard Tinkler: Untitled, 2017, oil on canvas, 40 by 30 inches. Courtesy 56 Henry, New York.