A longtime associate of John Cage, painter Ray Kass has explored the reverberations of the retinal for decades through abstraction, chance operations, nature studies and critical work. A recently opened show in New York gallery IR77 Contemporary Art brings together examples of his recent output along with several of the “readymade” paintings of the “28 Trays” series.

The “Trays” are especially resonant in a Duchamp-Cage context; while they superficially resemble abstract expressionist compositions, they are the actual trays that Kass placed under his paintings-in-progress to catch the watercolors as they dripped off the paper. As such, they serve as a sort of gravitic derivative of their associated paintings — non-standard “stoppages” that record the splatter that doesn’t make it into the work of art, “twisting as it pleases.”

(Through March 19. ir77.com has more details.)

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