For the first time, D’Amelio Terras will exhibit a new group of Joanne Greenbaum’s small-scale paintings.

The act of painting for Greenbaum is performative: it records the decision making dictated by the materials. She shifts between surface and ground to activate each composition. A densely clustered field of magic marker spirals is obliterated by a spill of ink or a pour of water. The surfaces are transparent, like a veil or a gel, on which the artist builds solid and structured forms. This tension between soluble and insoluble is evident throughout the series as she combines drawing materials like marker, ink, ballpoint pen with oil, watercolor, and acrylic paint. The scale of these canvases emphasizes the immediacy inherent in Greenbaum’s work. The works are alive in their off-handedness. Far from being precious, the paintings express the exuberance of making art and life in the studio.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue of the works in the series along with an interview with the artist and curator Marshall Price.

Greenbaum’s work is currently featured on the cover of Wilco’s new album, The Whole Love, released on September 27, 2011. Accompanying the Deluxe CD is a 52-page booklet featuring the work of Greenbaum. Her paintings are included in the recent Phaidon title, Painting Abstraction: New Elements in Abstract Painting, by Bob Nickas. In 2008, Greenbaum was the subject of a solo museum survey exhibition at Haus Konstruktiv, in Zurich, Switzerland and traveled to Museum Abteiberg, in Monchengladbach, Germany. She shows in London with greengrassi Gallery and in Switzerland with Nicolas Krupp Gallery. She has upcoming solo exhibitions at both in 2012.