David Smith from England has recently solved an important Mathematical problem. He found a single polygon shape that can tile an infinite flat plane creating a non repeating pattern. Smith was not a mathematician, he had worked as printing technician. I have always felt that printing and especially letterpress printing with moveable type was a very mathematical art form.

Dikko Faust is a master printer who develops beautiful tessellation patterns. Here are some of setups on the press.

If you are interested in exploring the mathematics behind printing, I recommend Faust’s Continuing Education course at SVA in Chelsea, New York.

Susan Happersett

The Jack Hanley Gallery in Tribeca is currently presenting the exhibition “Dog’s Dinner” a solo show of recent paintings by Johnny Abrahams. These two examples are from the “Elemental” series of work. Using a pallet knife, the artist applied a thick layer of black paint creating a linear textuality.

This Untitled canvas from 2022 features 3 rectangles each with the same curvi-linear cut away. Although at first they appear to be separate shapes there is a small connection between them.

Also Untitled from 2022, this canvas features two rectangles. One with a curved lower center corner and one with a curved upper central corner. This piece has order-2 rotational symmetry. Again, these two shapes have one place were they are subtly connected.

This series of work juxtaposes the linear polygon with curved lines and positive space with negative

Susan Happersett