Claire Oswalt: Moon Math

Claire Oswalt: Moon Math is Oswalt’s third exhibition with Rebecca Camacho Presents and includes a suite of new paintings and preparatory studies. The exhibition title refers to the artist’s ongoing interest in the systems and structures – both science and metaphysics – that provide us with a possible mapping, choreography, and visualizations to both understand and attempt to comprehend the world around us.

A consideration and continual interrogation of the processes and systems she deploys in her work ground Oswalt’s artistic practice. Indeed, the paintings for which she has become well known begin with small-scale sketches in acrylic paint on paper that form the initial step in a multi-part system of production rooted in both construction and deconstruction. The collages are comprised of torn or cut pieces that are the reconfigured remains of the original acrylic studies. This initial part of her process allows for quick, uninhibited choices, for spontaneity and chance. By contrast, Oswalt’s sewn paintings are produced fastidiously and methodically, but retain the dynamism that results from the unfettered approach anchoring the studies. This two-part process, resulting in a kind of push and pull, could be construed as somewhat oppositional, and yet each part is entirely interdependent on the other.

Oswalt’s work is informed by a wide range of sources, including the natural world, literature, quantum physics, and music. Several paintings in Moon Math demonstrate these interests, including Slipstone (2024), which is an amalgamation of color and form in three registers, conjuring an abstracted landscape with passages suggestive of water, rocks, and green foliage. Tint of Mist, Slip of Must (2024), a playful turn of phrase, reads as a billowy series of overlapping cloud formations set against the vibrant hues one finds in a dramatic sunset or sunrise. Other works such as Prelude in Green (2024) nod to musical referents such as Art Blakey’s Prelude in Blue with dynamic swaths of green paint that rhythmically collide, overlap, and intersect. Oswalt’s washy brushwork conjures the sounds of wind sweeping through grass or trees shuddering in a storm or perhaps a melodious jazz staple. Altissimo in Blue (2024) is replete with ripples and squiggles of blue that stretch across the canvas. Altissimo is the Italian word for “very high,” referring to the high notes of a woodwind instrument, and the wavy patches of color in Oswalt’s painting move like air, breath, or the swirl of a swelling adagio. 

The opening reception on 9 January 2025 begins at 6pm with a dialogue between Claire Oswalt and Julia Haft-Candell about the intersections between their practices and processes and centering the works on view in their respective exhibitions.