Jimi Gleason: Liquid Color

Liquid Color presented nine new paintings by Jimi Gleason, a Southern California artist who has spent his career exploring the reflective possibilities of a painted surface. Gleason treats acrylic-coated canvases with a chemical mixture and then sprays them with a silver nitrate solution, turning the surface into a sheet of silver. Bright yellows, rich ceruleans, glowing oranges and cool lime greens come through that mirror-like layer, so each painting changes with the light in the room and with where the viewer stands.

"By finishing with an iridescent surface coat, I inject a certain presence, bringing the light through, eradicating the very surface," Gleason has said of the process. Born in Newport Beach, he earned a BA from UC Berkeley in 1985, studied printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute and worked as a photo assistant in New York before spending five years in the studio of the abstract painter Ed Moses.

The paintings, all from 2023, ranged from 32 by 28 inches to Over Water Like Glass at 88 by 76 inches. The show ran alongside Celia Lees: LOVE LANGUAGE, and the two exhibitions shared an opening reception on March 7, 2024.