Deven Golden reviews an exhibition of new paintings by Ellen Berkenblit at Anton Kern Gallery, New York, on view through March 31, 2012.

Golden writes that in Birkenblit's recent paintings "the colors continually take precedent and pull the viewer's eye contrary to representational logic. The dichotomy created between figuration and abstraction simply refuses to coalesce, a frisson that supercharges the surface: it is not just the heroine of the paintings doing back-flips, but the entire figure-ground relationship."