Michael Reafsnyder emphasizes the dynamic characteristics of acrylic paint with his masterful ability to manipulate the water-based medium in his recent work on display at R.B. Stevenson Gallery in La Jolla. He fills the canvas with layers of complex hues and expressive strokes of color that flow through the canvas, forming interesting clusters of colors at the intersections.

Echoing the multi-faceted properties of the paint, Reafsnyder uses multiple sizes of pallet knives and sometimes found objects, “I don’t like cleaning brushes…I use anything but a brush.” Amazingly, he is able to keep the colors from mixing or turning into a muddled brown.

In Michael Reafsnyder’s joyously frenzied paintings, each rectangular picture, with its layers of drips, swirls, daubs, and arcs, in every hue imaginable, was also a map of its own creation. Together with his cacophonous multicolored, biomorphic ceramic sculptures, these works seemed primarily designed to energize their audiences.

For his showy topography, Reafsnyder used a variety of application methods: spreading the paint with a flat edge, allowing it to drip from above, applying it directly from the tube, touching it with his hand (or perhaps his arm), or, while the paint was still sticky, lifting it off the surface. The lush, thick surfaces put one in mind of cake frosting as much as they did Abstract Expressionism. Arguably Gerhard Richter’s spirit was being channeled—and challenged—as was Jackson Pollock’s.