Scott Indrisek reviews a show of works by Jacqueline Humphries at the Contemporary Art Center of New Orleans, on view through February 28, 2016.
Indrisek writes; "Upstairs, a gallery outfitted with black lights provides a coolly psychedelic environment for a series of canvases painted with ultraviolet enamel pigments. What might have been a nifty gimmick is instead an awe-inspiring, alien experience, bringing to mind everything from Gerhard Richter’s brash 1980s palette to the high-impact graphic nature of skateboard design and the fuzzy glow of one of James Turrell’s spaces. The colors here are thoroughly unnatural, the hues of Mountain Dew or Orange Crush. One canvas in a ghostly, ghastly green resembles a computer monitor that has imploded or blown out, left to emit a diffuse, swelling glow. With these works, Humphries shows the ways in which she’s influenced a younger generation of abstractionists, from Patrick Brennan to Keltie Ferris. These are paintings that indeed encourage and demand looking, but they move beyond the retinal into registers that are more sensual, and even physical."