Contributed by Taylor Bielecki / In Shuyao Huang’s exhibition “Still Becoming,” currently on view at Art Cake, she investigates color, repetition, and form as modes of experiencing time, interruption, and the transformation of space. Diving deeply into color theory and in line with her longstanding practice, Huang uses strong, simple bands of color as pacing intervals to pull us in and slow us down. The color and thickness of each band are deliberately calculated. The soothing pastel mixtures in, say, Almost the Same, encourage patient contemplation, whereas starkly confrontational primary colors urge jumping to the next. Rather than functioning as a repeated motif, the stripes are a flexible framework for imparting subtle variations in rhythm and affect, which she accomplishes by shifting their proportion, spacing, and color accumulation.