A must-see for abstract painting devotees, Xylor Jane‘s show at Parrasch Heijnen is aptly titled “Magic Square for Earthlings.” Adhering to logic so bizarre as to have issued from outer space, her enchanting pictures do indeed appear to possess kinetic thaumaturgy as shape-shifters. If this sounds exaggerative, see for yourself. Stand a few inches from any one of the ten paintings and study its surface. Intricate panoramas unfold, kaleidoscopically shifting, glowing, shimmering as your eyes skim across the dotty brushed expanse brimming with structured texture. Now slowly back away. Squares and triangles oscillate and stagger, morphing size and shape. Two (2017) and Magic Square for Earthlings (2017) best exemplify that from certain angles, entire canvases appear to bulge —skew —jump as you wend around them. Magic lies in the fact that these squares weren’t painted by an alien, only an earthling with ingenious methods of employing her talent. Jane accomplishes her startling effects by devising compositions from recondite systems and wearing a magnified visor while painting. She incorporates manual idiosyncrasy into patterns of machine-like precision. Her painted patchworks are technically rigorous, but never too perfect: her touch, often irregular but never careless, is always present. Bristling like occult handmade motherboards, Jane’s pictures are reminders that digital devices are devised through human dexterity, computers powered by human fingers as well as mathematical digits. If you normally disfavor abstraction, give these paintings a chance and they might pull you in.

Parrasch Heijnen
1326 S. Boyle Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90023
Show runs through Feb. 17