Sharon Butler visits the exhibition Ariel Dill: Oscillations at Southfirst Gallery, Williamsburg, on view through May 27, 2012.

Butler writes: "Rather than hanging the paintings in a traditional white cube, Dill has painted the bottom half of the wall grey, referencing images of Gertrude Stein's salon and signalling a more intimate, less didactic approach. Rejecting manifestos, Dill proposes that painting can still generate complex and meaningful conversation."