Opening Reception:
Thursday, March 26, 6-8 PM

Gallery Talk:
Thursday, April 16, 6 PM
Joyce Kozloff in conversation with Alexi Worth
Alexi Worth in conversation with Joyce Kozloff

At DC Moore Gallery, Alexi Worth will present new paintings depicting near-at-hand experiences: doorways, a fig leaf, and lovers undressing each other in bed.

Painted on thin mesh fabrics, the paintings are austere, delicate, and meditative. A greenish, sea-glass translucency emphasizes their shallow depth. As in Worth’s previous work, viewers can partially see through the surface to the gallery wall. In Doorway, for instance, we recognize a dim emerald “interior space” as both fact (the physical inside of the painting) and fiction – a receding corridor, with its black welcome mat, promising access.

Worth’s play between literalism and illusion is complicated by his unusual mixed technique. Instead of brushing, Worth generally sprays color over hand-cut stencils. The effect recalls cyanotypes, with their insistent flat shapes and tonal delicacy. And yet these flat shapes are evidently made from freehand drawings. Wavering contours, often stuttered or doubled, offer a brushless alternative to painterly touch, a kind of oblique handmadeness.

The show’s title refers to a traditional riddling drinking game, as well as to the literal glass doors through which most of us pass every day.