Bending Zones & Shifting Accents (Magician’s Hand II) 2006

Gary Wragg's painting, "Bending Zones & Shifting Accents (Magician’s Hand II)" is a trip, right? It's like color exploded, and then someone tried to organize it with lines, but not too hard. Look at how Wragg lets the paint drip and pool; it's all about the physical stuff, the goopiness. I love the way he uses these bright, almost acidic colors, like that electric blue crashing into the orangey-red. And the surface! It's built up, thick in some spots, scraped back in others. You can practically feel the energy of his process. See that little cluster of purplish marks in the center? It's like a little storm of color, and it pulls everything around it. It reminds me of some of Joan Mitchell's later, more chaotic paintings, where she's just throwing everything at the canvas and seeing what sticks. It feels risky, like Wragg is really pushing the boundaries of what a painting can be.