Clare Rojas. Untitled (CR15014), 2015; 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of the Artist. and Anglim Gilbert Gallery.

New paintings by Clare Rojas at Anglim Gilbert Gallery give the greatest pleasure when viewed twice—first from a distance of about ten feet, and then from much closer, just a foot or two away.

These are large paintings, and from afar they reveal a surprising dynamism, all the more impressive because each piece seems so simple. Rojas has painted flat, geometric shapes, primarily quadrangles and triangles, using only a few dense colors (black, deep red, dark blue, ochre) against an off-white background. Occasionally some thinner black lines connect the shapes. The effect should be almost aggressively two-dimensional and linear, blocky even, but instead, the density and positioning of the shapes brings them to life. The eye moves between the lines, shapes, and negative space in a way that seems lively and playful.

Movement is often experienced and understood in terms of beginnings and endings, from one place to another. Here there is often no beginning or ending, or rather an endless series of both. In Untitled (CR15014), for example, there is a curious weight to the composition. In the left quarter of the piece, a series of shapes, mostly triangles and thin lines, zigzags from top to bottom. The eye here moves in that direction. Yet the eye is equally drawn to the larger quadrangles that occupy the rest of the canvas. A visual tug-of-war ensues, with each side equally worthy of attention.

Up close, the subtle craft of each piece becomes more apparent. Small ridges of paint delineate the boundaries of the shapes. In some cases, Rojas has used these ridges to form further shapes in the off-white negative space of the painting. These off-white patterns, visible only from a short distance away, shadow and extend the lines of their more colorful counterparts in the paintings. When these ridges extend from the edges of the shapes to the edge of the canvas, as they do in Untitled (CR1506), they expand the painting’s movement into the gallery itself.

Clare Rojas: New Work is on view at Anglim Gilbert Gallery through October 10, 2015. 

Hana Metzger hails from the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. She currently reads and writes in San Francisco, CA.