John Torreano Discusses “Dark Matters Without Time” at LESLEY HELLER

James Kalm, as a young artist, was drawn to the works of Torreano because of their outrageous physicality and kitschy decorativeness. Embedded beneath this superficial reading has always been a modernist sense of the formal, albeit cloaked in bling. “Dark Matters Without Time” is the artist’s first show in New York in six years, and the first with Lesley Heller Gallery. Working with studios in both New York and Abu Dhabi, Torreano explores his interests in painting “like a scientist” in that he sees artwork as experiments and investigations in problem solving. This show presents paintings on panel, gem encrusted “columns” and individual gem sculpture in various media. This program was recorded March 24, 2018 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.