Molly Rose Lieberman’s resonant work

Contributed by Leslie Roberts / During a recent tour of downtown galleries, I saw several consecutive shows presenting tightly programmed bodies of work. In exhibit after exhibit, the pieces were uniform in size, homogeneous in strategy, and made of standardized, highly finished components. Even some strong exhibits felt overly glossy, suffused with a commodified quality. Molly Rose Lieberman’s “The Candle is on the Table,” at Theta Gallery, was a welcome relief. Each painting and sculpture has a particular format and resolution that the artist appears to have arrived at in the making.

The paintings combine oil, wax, Flashe, and found materials such as bits of paper, digitally printed photos, and cloth. Some formats are dictated by found picture frames. Each painting is built of layered marks and shapes, often oval and occasionally square, that include daubs, drips, and blots of paint, as well as cut and torn fragments of paper. The imagery suggests remembered glimpses of domestic and urban experience. A couple of pieces riff on patterns of tablecloths, flowers, and possibly wallpaper. Several depict figures ensconced in surrounding sidewalks and streets. EmBedded, in which a figure is seen through or reflected in plate glass, features contrasting textures evoking concrete and graffiti. In The wind wakes me up, a walking figure is showered with bits of yellow, capturing the feeling of late afternoon light. The guy in Man in gray suit blinking in the twilight has a transparent, cartoony face, centered on the canvas and looking as if he were not so much constructed as discovered. 

Figures notwithstanding, the paintings maintain a strong abstract identity. Rhythmic, mosaic-like constellations of brush marks and collaged shapes choreograph inventive compositions. In Btw 2 bridges, the small constituent dots and scraps vary in hue, producing a pattern-like field. The palettes throughout are crisp and sparkling, combining low-chroma colors with pinks, oxblood reds, and acid greens. In keeping with the show’s title, several sculptures are table-like, and include cast-bronze grape stems, with wax candles standing in for the grapes. The paintings and sculptures gently interact. Bowl of grapes, a painting, incorporates a digitally printed photograph of a sculpture. Skyscraper, the largest sculpture, is stacked on a found column, its mirrored façade reflecting the room. Most of the rectangular solids in the sculptures are either clamshell book boxes or similar forms immaculately constructed from pressed binder’s cardboard, sometimes covered with cloth. 

In all this, a love of books and writing as well as urban architecture emerges. In the context of the grape imagery, cascades of painted and collaged shapes bring to mind the natural grace and structure of organic forms. The show brings together urban and domestic, exterior and interior resonances – fresh, sensual, and memorable.

“Molly Rose Lieberman: The Candle is on the Table,” Theta Gallery, 184 Franklin Street, New York, NY. Through June 20, 2026.

About the author: Leslie Roberts is a Brooklyn-based artist and professor emerita at Pratt Institute. She had recent shows at Studio Light | Space in Tucson and 57W57Arts in New York City.