Pamela Jorden’s show, Arm of the Sea, opening on March 29th at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, will feature oil paintings on shaped supports that embody an ebb and flow between abstract and representational associations. These conspicuously constructed paintings assert a sculptural presence at a human scale.

Jorden’s paintings bring to mind atmospheric light or up-close views of tidal pools, using washes of paint that flow and disperse across the surfaces. Channeling artists such as J.M.W. Turner and Ellsworth Kelly, Jorden’s works reflect a physical and experiential interaction with landscape. Stains and pours of prismatic colors trail off in many directions, suggesting horizons, aerial perspectives, or the contained universe of an activated petri dish. The pigments in Jorden’s paint disperse within her diluted pours, creating alluvial flows that range from the heavily saturated to transparent, and collect or dissolve around and over the edges of the paintings. Like Kelly’s distinctly shaped works, Jorden’s circular or angular stretchers suggest warped or pinched forms, while textured flows of color disrupt linear perspective and encourage a subjective point of view.