Leslie Wayne

Click #2 for a 3-D image (3-D glasses required)

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Leslie Wayne doesn’t paint. Instead, she slices, folds and pinches. For her, paint is sculptable material, and she clearly delights in its haptic sensuality. Wayne’s fascination with the medium’s malleability is infectious, and delectable was the word that kept coming to mind while taking in the small, mostly 13-by-10-inch canvases that belong to the series “One Big Love,” now on view at Jack Shainman. A New York artist who has enjoyed a successful if under-the-radar career, Wayne frequently works in series and at a small, intimate scale.

Despite their size, each of the 17 canvases on view forcefully asserts its own personality (not unlike Richard Tuttle’s wall-mounted sculptures). When viewed together, however, the works take on a companionable, narrative quality. A layer of paint on #38 has been sliced away from the lower half and pulled upward, its underbelly a bright orange swath that complements the ribbons of purple paint playfully emerging from beneath the fold. Meanwhile, a neighboring composition, #37, has a nearly smooth aqua surface except for a Lucio Fontana--esque slit that reveals a glimpse of orange. Some works are even more sculptural, such as #25 and #26, upside-down U shapes composed of many layers of pinched and folded paint that squinch together with the pliability of wet newspaper. Full of juicy colors and surprising twists, this show works hard to please at every turn, and succeeds every time.

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