Canada Gallery, New York City Galerie Almine Rech, Paris Private Collection, Milan
Exhibited
Paris, Galerie Almine Rech, Xylor Jane Crisscross, 11 September–23 October 2010
Catalogue Essay
American artist Xylor Jane applies numerology to her work through painting intricate patterns derived from algorithms. An almost literate paint-by-numbers in the most complex and mathematically grounded process, the obsessive dots of oil paint in classic ROYGBIV colours follows a strict pattern. Hidden within the repetitions are optical tricks, with VC III A (First Fall) appearing to have to heart shape embedded in its form. Through the intricacy of the arithmetically derived patterning, the creation of space within the two-dimensional canvas creates another level of illusion; Jane herself has spoken of this optical illusion: "a lot of the space that is just your eyes trying to locate the different dots … It’s a stress on your eyes that’s happening, and that creates this artifcial space" (in an interview by Alex Gartenfeld, ‘Xylor Jane Paints by Numbers’, Interview Magazine, January 2009).