Feel with the eyes

Katherine Sherwood lays it on thick. “It” being paint, and with it she builds texturally diverse layers of her abstract mixed-media paintings. With restraint, she streams latex-based paint onto the canvas over blocks of color and prints (huge brains, a leafless tree). The rubbed-off dark glaze adds depth and an aged appearance to the final result: a tactile surface (only to be touched with sight, of course), potentially providing hours of complicated eyeball fun: smooth ascensions, tapering swirls, blunt drops where paint was peeled off, then tumbling into another color or pattern block. And then there’s the relief of sailing into the negative space, only to discover it’s dappled with textural nuances, too, restarting the fun all over again.

This is your last shot to see Sherwood’s work at B. Sakata Garo gallery. She shows with Jeff Adams’ paintings and drawings until Saturday, May 31.