Sculptural Paintings Brightly Cover Walls in Rainbow Squiggles

New York-based artist Josh Sperling merges sculpture with painting in his newest solo exhibition. Entitled Spectrum, the series of abstract works features the artist's signature squiggle motif in multi-piece installations that appear to move across the walls.

Sperling creates these colorful motifs by stretching canvas over carved plywood and painting the desired hue on top. As a result, the forms appear as both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, depending on the angle of the viewer. The sinuous shapes of these squiggles create buoyant movement which, in conjunction with the rainbow color palette, makes the installations a dynamic experience to walk through.

“Illusion is also very important to me: the underlying structure gives the illusion of something, it is mysterious,” Sperling explains. “When the squiggles are skinnier, they have one central layer; in the middle, they have two; and when they are very large, they have three. That is a result of wanting to give the work an organic life-like feel, like the rings of a tree that grows with layers.” In addition to the squiggles, the artist also has numerous “double bubble” pieces hanging on the walls, which are produced using the same techniques.

You can view Sperling's work in person at the Perrotin, Hong Kong until June 12, 2021, and see more of the artist's work by following him on Instagram.