The ecstasy that the Brooklyn-based painter Keltie Ferris finds in color recalls Matisse. His willingness to explore the possibilities of a particular tool through painting mirrors Jasper Johns. His nods to digital culture and use of the grid suggest an affinity with Albert Oehlen and, more so, Laura Owens, as in “sWISHes” (2023), a loose tangle of squiggles — a not-quite calligraphy of yellow and aqua spray paint — that dances atop a field of squares in a variety of contrasting colors predominated by blue on pink. The resulting painting strikes a delicate harmonious cohesion, cleverly creating a sense of depth and motion, with no real-world referent, except maybe pixels and graffiti. If “sWISHes” is a painting of anything it may be this: a dogged belief that painting at this late stage still has a future. In the dozen paintings on view, Ferris uses spray guns, oil sticks and brushes, palette knives for building up and scraping away, as well as his body in paintings that explore what possibilities the medium may yet yield.

See: Keltie Ferris at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 534 West 26th Street; through December 9. With highly colored paintings of grids and things that look like algae blooms and coral reefs seen through filters - plus intriguing prints made with his own body as a brush - Keltie Ferris presents a brave, capricious style plumbing the depths and implications of abstraction.

Welcome to This Week in Culture, a weekly agenda of show openings and events in major cities across the globe. From galleries to institutions and one-of-a-kind happenings, our ongoing survey highlights the best of contemporary culture, for those willing to make the journey. “dOUbTsWISHes” by Keltie Ferris at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, October 26 - December 9, 2023. Why It’s Worth a Look: Here, Keltie Ferris presents 10 new large-scale paintings, including a series of body prints. The works, which show elements of spray paint, oils, scraping, and layering, are a thought-provoking study in mark-making. Ferris’s ongoing body print pieces, in which he uses his own body as a tool, are here shown on canvas for the first time, rather than being made on paper.