Mark Knoerzer’s current exhibition “ORBIS” is all about circles. Not only are the paintings circular in format, the artist’s interest in the celestial planetary orbits is expressed through the use of consecutive circles.These abstract paintings are oil, acrylic and epoxy on wood and require many layers of pigment to achieve their glowing shiny quality. What makes these images geometrically interesting is how Knoerzer manipulates the concentric circles creating different symmetries.

In the painting “Stella 2” above, The base circles have been divided into four segments that meet at the center point. The segments have been “cut” into petal shapes. Each of these petal shapes have a line of reflection symmetry and the entire painting (disregarding coloration) has order 4 rotational symmetry. This creates a thematic tension in this painting. The circular format and the underlying concentric circles all have infinitely many lines of symmetry, but the geometric pattern created has limited symmetry. Knoerzer’s exploration of the geometry of planets is enhanced by his laborious painting technique. The final product is a celebration of light, space and circles.