Contributed by Jason Andrew / There is a bound wildness to Liz Ainslie’s new paintings at Deanna Evans Projects. Across 18 paintings, three of which are over six feet tall and the largest she’s made to date, Ainslie introduces an eclectic menagerie of loops, halos, and squiggles penned in by stripes, checkerboards, and color fields. The works are beguiling hybrids of perception and abstraction in their pursuit of free-form reverie with formal discipline. Her idiosyncratic style built over years draws on representational sources – plein air sketches, tropes in historical paintings, architectural references, and decorative accents. She positions these elements in fields of layered color that contrast in associative and atmospheric weight. Consistent throughout the exhibition is a vertical window-like format that frames a discreet view on Ainslie’s world.
Structural logic is clearest in Ainslie’s smaller compositions. In So Seen, two frenzied circular forms, one blue and one orange, act as disruptors i an otherwise stable situation. Seemingly disengaged, they hover against horizontal and vertical stripes. A dark grid pattern anchors the painting, divided by a stream-like squiggle that takes on the color of the forms it passes through as it winds its way down from the center. Emphasizing the interplay of interior and exterior as well as scale, Ainslie paints a miniature mountain in the lower right corner. There is a lot going on in these pictures. Though a bit awkward, it works for a painter, like Ainslie, who is committed to this programmed complexity.
In When to Stop, Ainslie takes her own advice, meditating on two simple fields of blue. Her pulsating circular form returns, positioned like a viewfinder presenting inside it a field of fine-brushed horizontal lines. A gray circle and a red circle play on the periphery. Here the space feels wide and ambiguous as Ainslie’s forms fluctuate between figure/object and pure signs, generating a feeling of free yet guided association.
Ainslie is deservedly recognized for small-scale paintings bursting with intimate contemplations. It is terrific to see her scale up with such poise. Apparent in the larger paintings is an embrace of abstraction, with representation merely in support. Among the Details, one of the three large paintings, the central image is a lumbering biomorphic figure. Composed from what the artist has described as “an interior, subconscious place,” it tags along playfully, straddling a space between what is presented as interior and landscape, memory and seeing. This oscillation is Ainslie’s strength, and she has mastered it. Just as she is committed to these forms, she is also willing to dissect them. The roiling ball of energy that appears in several paintings, here in this painting upper left, seems to have been unraveled, splayed and left vulnerable.
An existential thrust of flesh and trauma seem evident in Bagging or Burying. Here a large, looping expanse of sage green regulates the composition, turning back four times onto itself. With each turn, the loop exposes animated space. As if ready to consume, this configuration sits pedestalled on a cream-colored rectangle set off by a dirt-brown field. Here, color dictates spatial edge and flat geometric shapes serve as anchors.
Ainslie’s abstractions possess a primal energy that preys on meditation. Although the scale and allusiveness might risk diffusion, she achieves coherence with an assured palette and recurring motifs. The result is an exhibition that penetratingly explores how painting mediates our inner and outer landscapes expressing the wildness of the flesh and tethering of an infinite subconscious.
“Liz Ainslie: Like on the Outside,” Deanna Evans Projects, 370 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY. Through November 22, 2025.
About the author: Jason Andrew is an independent curator and writer based in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. Follow him on Instagram: @jandrewarts
