Abstraction has arrived in the Lower East Side. A visit to the neighborhood’s galleries this month reveals a near survey of contemporary approaches using this technique. But while terms for more established subsets of abstraction abound—geometric, biomorphic, non-objective—few exist for the newer approaches populating contemporary galleries. Observer has a fix for that. I’ve taken the liberty of coming up with a few terms myself to help gallery goers out. Read and memorize these terms. Share them with your friends. They’re all new movements—and you read about them first here.

Let’s begin with what I like to call, “All Over Abstraction”—abstraction that extends beyond the canvas, onto the walls, and into the frames. Daniel Rios Rodriguez’s intimate paintings currently on view at Nicelle Beauchene fit this bill. Rodriguez uses shaped frames to extend his abstractions outside of the canvas, at times applying paint on them, as if subsuming the structure. The work pairs a beach cottage vibe with a mystical new age aesthetic, recalling the work of Zach Harris. Harris similarly uses hand carved frames and patterning in his work but offers none of the Southwestern touchstones of Rodriguez. Read More