In Channing Hansen’s solo gallery debut, which consists of nine large knitted works and one salon-style grid of smaller pieces, traditional stretcher bars are visible behind the gauzy woven materials. For these undeniably engaging works, Hansen acquires, dyes, and spins raw fibers into yarn that he knits and finally stretches. Possessed of obscure significance, each fiber in each piece originates from a rare ruminant breed or hybrid.

Channing Hansen,
K²:AR:03 (2015), courtesy of the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Art.

Viewed closely, irregular arabesque webs cast loopy shadows on walls. Closer still, holographic threads shimmer, and tiny matte fibers stick out every which way as though vying to escape from the yarn to which they belong.

Channing Hansen,
K²:DH:05 (2015), courtesy of the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Art.

In seeming opposition to this homespun handiwork, the artist employs a computer algorithm to determine changes in color, stitch, and form; though the formula remains concealed. Hansen’s combination of handmade and computerized technologies is intriguing; “digital,” after all, can mean “done with a finger,” and computers are man made.

Channing Hansen,
K²:JA:04 (2015), courtesy of the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Art.

Still, Hansen’s esotericism seems almost comical, like Josef Beuys’ patter. Racked and impaled openwork seems enfeebled by its smartly incongruous rigid mounts. Stretcher bars underneath speak to the notion that like that of hipsters, the paintings’ eco-conscious dilapidated aesthetic may be only a thinly veiled form of urbanity.

Channing Hansen,
K²:Index (2016), courtesy of the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Art.

Though Hansen has asserted that “craft solves questions; art asks them,” and “the frame becomes a question, a field of inquiry,” frames are also pigeonholes of painting’s continuum, with all its history and dialogue. His works have less to do with traditional painting dialogue than they do with that of other less rigidly defined forms. Stretching these knittings on wooden frames seems either an afterthought or a pretext that distracts from their animated charm. Confining them to painting praxis dilutes their idiosyncrasy and demeans their craft, as though the knitted textiles need stretchers to elevate them. They don’t. The only thing holding back these strikingly singular manifolds is their failure to be themselves.

Channing Hansen, February 27-April 9, 2016, at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, 9953 South Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA  90212, www.marcselwynfineart.com.