NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AMERINGER | McENERY | YOHE is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by Michael Reafsnyder. The exhibition will open 12 October and remain on view through 11 November 2017. A public reception for the artist will be held on 12 October from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Michelle Grabner and David Pagel.

Using a range of techniques, Michael Reafsnyder creates riotous paintings that simmer and churn with an intense energy. Smooth swipes of a palette knife meet kinetic splotches and splatters, forming dense accumulations of acrylic paint. Smiley faces and playful doodles squeezed straight from the tube emerge from this visual maelstrom, further amplifying the innate joy found in his canvases.

At first glance, Reafsnyder’s raucous surfaces present an almost overwhelming level of visual stimulation that is impossible to digest in an instant. After looking at a painting long enough, things begin to settle into something resembling a pattern—repeated arrangements appear in ways that feel familiar and recognizable. The works are also marked by a distinct spatial complexity, with blotches of paint seeming to break through or hover above the picture plane.

Though Reafsnyder’s paintings are hard to pin down, there is a delight in their elusiveness. His saturated palette and the organized chaos of his gestures demonstrate his unbridled enthusiasm and unscripted physicality. As David Pagel notes, “Rather than making works with predetermined meanings, he makes paintings that misbehave like nobody’s business, generating experiences whose consequences depend on what each of us makes of them.”

MICHAEL REAFSNYDER (b. in 1969 in Orange, CA) received his Bachelor of Arts degree in studio art at Chapman University in Orange, CA in 1992 and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the Arts Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 1996.