April 20, 2019
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The painted tambourines that the artist Paul Lee incorporates into the shaped-canvas abstractions of his latest show, “I see with my body now,” at Karma Gallery, function as visual punctuation. In the bottom corner of a large black square, a round white tambourine is a full stop, telling your eye that the picture is over and its maker has nothing more to say. In red or yellow pairs, at opposite corners of simple, two-tone designs, the instruments are both quotation marks and parentheses, emphasizing the intentional, communicative nature of any art work, even the most opaque, while also insisting on its provisionality: The pieces can express only what viewer and artist, for a passing moment, agree on.