O-1 Visas
If you took a squeegee to a Franz Kline, ran it through a Gerhard Richter filter, added a dose of phenomenology, and then said, “Take that, Michael Fried!” you might end up with Matthew Herriot’s recent show at boundary, Surface Veil. The space, which continues the estimable tradition of Chicago artists running galleries out of their meticulously retrofitted garages, presents seven paintings by the UK-born artist. Each is a midsize sheet of anodized aluminum, thoroughly scraped and dragged with black acrylic paint, then finished with a final layer applied in the shape of a rectangle, the widest nearly obliterating the entire composition, the thinnest a mere sliver of solidity. I have not seen these artworks in person, only in reproduction, a terrible irony considering that their entire raison d’être is to offer the viewer an opportunity to discover unexpected beauty in the moment that light hits them and puts into play different perceptual possibilities. But I would like to.
—Lori Waxman 4/24/26 3:40 PM