Curated by William Norton
SHOWROOM: Guerra Paint & Pigment Corp.
57-52 58th Place Maspeth, NY.
In collaboration with @theNextWaveGallery nextwavegallery.com
Exhibition Dates: Monday 1/12 – Friday 2/14/2026 – Open weekdays from 12-6 pm. Reception for this exhibition is Sunday 1/25/2026 from 3-6 pm.
A koan is not meant to be solved.
It resists linear logic and collapses the distinction between question and answer.
There is an assumption of free will and the possibility of independent thought.
Before images stood for things, marks were things: pressure, rhythm, repetition, ritual. The earliest cave paintings are not illustrations in the modern sense; they are acts—records of breath, movement, belief, and time. They function less as pictures and more as encounters.
In that sense, abstraction is not a modern reduction but a return.
In Painted Abstractions: The Painted Koan, the works by Chris Ketchie and Yukari Edamitsu operate similarly: they are not images to decode, but situations to sit with.
• Ketchie’s poured placards read as repeated gestures—small, insistently physical acts. Each surface is a residue of gravity, viscosity, and chance. The repetition echoes ritual, while the scale keeps the encounter intimate, almost devotional.
• Edamitsu’s abstractions hold emotional intelligence rather than symbolic clarity. Her use of oil—slow, layered, resistant—creates fields that feel psychological and temporal, as if meaning is suspended rather than delivered.
Neither artist offers resolution. Instead, they present conditions. Both of these artists invite the viewer to access the work through their own lives, channeling their private histories and memories to bring meaning. These artists don’t serve up an easy spoon fed narrative, their vision is too important for a simple answer.
For press inquiries, interviews, or images, please contact:
William Norton – thewilliamnorton@gmail.com
Artist/ Curator/ Gallery Co-Director
@theNextWaveGallery – @norton_curatorial_projects – www.nortonartists.com
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