By refusing to pursue the pictorial, geometric, or gestural, or pick up where the Pattern and Decoration movement left off, while committing to drawing in paint, Greenbaum distinguishes her work from that of many of her peers. Fiercely independent, she belongs to no group, movement, or style; I have long admired her determination to make work without allusions to other artists, tropes (e.g., grids, parody, citation), or a shared experience. This is her clarion call for artistic freedom, and it made me excited to see Scaffold, her debut exhibition at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Greenbaum paints incrementally, discovering her composition as she proceeds. In a nearly square untitled work from 2024, red lines, ragged-edged swaths of turquoise, and angular maroon shapes sit atop a pink ground.

A talented New York artist who has become known for her wildly complex abstract paintings and drawings as well as her trippy, hand-built ceramics, Joanne Greenbaum utilizes color, line, and form like a Michelin-star chef uses food from the farm to whip up a tasty dish. Described as inventive, chaotic, psychological, and electrifying, her energetic paintings are defined by intuitive mark-making, which Greenbaum achieves in a variety of arresting ways. For “Scaffold,” her first solo exhibition with the gallery, the artist offers eight new, large-scale paintings—including her largest canvas to date—and five shapely, monochromatic ceramic sculptures, which are strikingly arranged in Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s spacious setting.

By embracing in her paintings the heterogeneous complexity of her situation, Greenbaum provides a metaphorical representation of the creative potential that can emerge from engaging with, rather than avoiding the contradictions inherent in our everyday experiences. Her work suggests that by embracing complexity and resisting easy resolution, we can gain deeper insights into the nature of art, life, and our own place within it. Interpreting her paintings as pictorial analogies or allegories allows for a richer, more nuanced understanding of her work, the world we live in, and our place within it.

Welcome to the early edition of the Two Coats painting-centric guide to May art exhibitions in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. In Manhattan, Julia Bland has a new series of monumental woven and painted pieces at Derek Eller and Joanne Greenbaum is having her first solo at Mitchell-Innes & Nash. Mitchell-Innes & Nash / 534 W 26th St., New York, NY / Joanne Greenbaum, Scaffold / closes May 24.