In 2001, Harriet Korman said that she “was thinking about the brilliance and beauty of color. I am interested in a more spontaneous or everyday use of color, not Western color theory that you learn in art school. I wanted to explore that random use of color in my work.” This series of work began in 1997, when, as she described, “I was basically working on a square, with just a few color changes within that square. Then the drawing and the shapes became more eccentric and fun…. I’m still very interested in it.” This exhibition of works made during the three years since that interview demonstrates that Korman’s focus on color continues to generate fresh and complex work.

In her most recent paintings, shapes nudge, shift and jostle against each other; they press toward and away from the picture plane and the perimeter of the canvas. The colored shapes imply a looping, rhythmic line that forms the boundaries between the colors and divides the larger masses into smaller shapes. Even the paintings organized on the framework of a grid are irregular, improvised and unpredictable. The paintings develop without a fixed orientation until they are nearly finished; perhaps the buoyant center of gravity results from working without reference to top and bottom. One painting doesn’t have a fixed orientation even though it is finished: four three-foot square panels organized into one six-foot square can be arranged in any orientation. Such is the poise and balance of the component parts that it all works.