Pat Steir's 'Kairos' Showcases Gravity-Driven Paintings at Lévy Gorvy in New York

Pat Steir's exhibition 'Kairos' at Lévy Gorvy in New York from September 7 to October 21, 2017, features 12 recent paintings that employ a gravity-based technique of pouring thinned oil paint onto upright canvases, a method she adopted in the late 1980s. Inspired by her friendship with John Cage, this process removes ego from the work by allowing chance and environmental factors like studio humidity to shape the outcomes. Steir plans color order, paint viscosity, and pour duration, but relinquishes control once paint hits the canvas, rejecting the expressionist aspect of Abstract Expressionism. The paintings, organized around a central vertical split, display an ethereal palette of light blues, greys, pinks, greens, silver, and gold. 'Lila Judith' (2016–17) reveals a black streak beneath a pinky purple field, while 'Morning (With Red Line in the Middle)' (2015–16) features black drips that are actually cracks in a white layer, creating tectonic-like effects. 'Sweet Grey' (2016–17) includes parallel red streaks emphasizing tonal inversion, and 'Angel' (2016–17) deviates with a taped-off tangerine orange line, paying homage to Steir's mentor Agnes Martin. This marks Steir's first New York exhibition since joining Lévy Gorvy in 2016, with the review published in the December 2017 issue of ArtReview.