Roland Flexner is known for his delicate and precise works on
paper, from graphite drawings of skulls, contorted faces, and
ripples of water to more recent ‘bubble’ drawings involving ink,
soap, and the resulting bubble that bursts onto paper.

Flexner’s newest works are evocative, undulating abstractions
based on the Japanese art of suminagashi. During an extended
residency in Japan, Flexner was introduced to this ancient
decorative tradition, involving a highly refined, skillfully crafted
form of ink, or sumi, and water. Sumi is floated on water in a
tray, and manipulated into shapes even as it moves on its own.
Paper is dipped onto the surface of the water to transfer the
image; in the few seconds before it dries, Flexner can alter the
image in various ways, with a brush or by tilting, blowing on, or
blotting the ink.

The resulting works possess a sense of deep pictorial space,
great complexity, and conjure numerous visual associations:
rocky landscapes, fungus, ice-encased trees, patterns of
erosion. They could almost be mistaken for photographs by the
rich black and slightly granular, silvery texture of the ink, and
the sharp ‘focus’ of the image. While the tiny, precise gestures
of the artist are a crucial element in the process, these works
inevitably derive from the vagaries of the materials and their
reaction to the quality and motion of the air, the currents of the
water, and the force of gravity, and thereby defer ultimately to
chance and nature, but with the most astonishing, seductive
results.