Peggy Cyphers at The Proposition - New York

Peggy Cyphers's abstract, mixed-medium paintings often seem to have been created through organic processes of erosion and growth, but actually make reference to the artist's real-life surroundings. Her latest exhibition included 12 paintings, nine of which constitute a series titled "Girl in the City." In one of these, the mostly dark-hued Night (2002), many multicolored dots might remind viewers of city lights. The artist herself is represented (though few are likely to recognize her) by three tiny red spots, as if reduced to eyes and mouth. Squares equal buildings and subtle regions of gold leaf evoke a somewhat glamorous mood.

Like Paul Klee, Cyphers employs simple elements to form elegant compositions; like Joan Mitchell, she tends to work her canvases in a dense, layered manner guided by an instinct for balancing form and color. But her understated, vaguely representational visual lexicon is completely of her own invention. Cyphers sometimes applies sand to her canvases for added texture. In Dog Walker (2003), one such piece, bright pink plays off of light green and various earth tones. Vivaldi (2003) boldly asserts Chinese reds, yellows and a big black blob. Navy blue dots carouse across the composition--and surprisingly don't clash with the rest.

The two paintings not from the "Girl" series are, respectively, the sparsest and the densest in the show. Little constellations of black specks, which bear resemblance to bug tracks, scoot across the large, mostly beige Santa Fe (2002). In the same painting, two Brancusi-esque minarets stand in the lower left-hand corner, paying abstruse homage to the Twin Towers. (Cyphers painted the piece while on a New Mexico residency organized to give relief to New York-based artists following the terrorist attacks on the city.) Future Byzantium--Turner (1998-2003) appears to have moss growing on it. Scars, foliage, stains and glyphs come to mind, since Cyphers renders shapes resembling but not exactly depicting such things. Areas of blue seem to glow, and yellow areas recede.

Cyphers also presented a series of "clones" (her term) of her work, the only unfortunate aspect of the exhibition. These photographic reproductions of paintings, backed by aluminum and preserved under Plexiglas, sell in multiples. Their slick surfaces lack the intensity of the paintings, which depend on texture for much of their character. They don't do justice to Cyphers's work, which really needs to be experienced firsthand in order to be properly appreciated.

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