Helen Marden

Gagosian is pleased to announce Interlude of Joy, an exhibition of new paintings by Helen Marden. Opening on July 14 at 541 West 24th Street, the presentation introduces Marden’s largest works to date, including her first paintings in a triptych format, smaller circular paintings, and watercolors.

Marden paints with acrylic, resin, and powdered pigment, working on canvas panels placed on the studio floor or exterior ground. She applies vivid hues with dynamic gestures in glossy, translucent pours and looping, gestural strands across multiple white panels. She paints other works on smaller round canvases, producing dense compositions with intensely saturated concentrations of color. Her expressive abstractions are driven by the joy of life. “I feel strongest when I’m in my studio,” she explains.

The exhibition in New York is titled after the poem “Interlude of Joy” by George Seferis, a Greek poet and the 1963 Nobel laureate in Literature. Its verses communicate the elation prompted by experiences of nature, while ending with the lament “I don’t understand people: / no matter how much they play with colours / they all remain pitch-black.”