Influenced by the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the mid-1970s and Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut aesthetic, Obsession showcases art which is at once universal, organic, and reflects the tangible comfort inherent in the human tendency towards repetition and pattern. The exhibition features six contemporary artists: Alexander Gorlizki, Dennis Koch, Michelle Segre, James Siena, Robert Walker, and Daniel Zeller whose meticulous works immerse the viewer in optical excess.

Alexander Gorlizki’s intricate paintings on paper reference the traditions of Indian miniature painting and manuscript illustrations while expressing a contemporary pop art feel with an opulent mix of dense pattern and vibrant color.

Dennis Koch’s artworks strive at being disarming. His forms initially suggest animated anatomical shapes and three-dimensional sculptures, but these artworks also become dynamic planar investigations as sections of color overlap, abut, and fold. The ability to create visual shifts in depth, results in a large part from the mark-making, which, though repetitive, dogged, even tedious, produces an unexpectedly rich and saturated palette.

Michelle Segre creates crowded linear drawings that are highly detailed and finely realized studies of entropic growth and disintegration. Using ink or gouache, the work reflects a meditative, stream-of-conscious characteristic.

James Siena’s paintings are hand-rendered procedural abstractions, methodically executed, covering a wide range of methods and producing multiple visual and psychological effects. Visually and intellectually stimulating, Siena’s work reflects his self-imposed predetermined sets of rules which result in intensely concentrated, vibrantly-colored, freehand geometric patterns.

Robert Walker’s process-oriented art deals with the unconscious and intuitive center of creativity. The repetition of marks or lines in different values or colors creates a meditative and atmospheric perception, translating into abstract work that has only the faintest hint of the subject’s actual form.

Daniel Zeller’s practice involves scrupulous pattern making creating forms that resemble maps, arteries, and isolated body parts. The artist is motivated by the labor intensive repetition, its lingering between sci-fi staging and topographical landscape, using a spontaneous approach to his work.