Jeffrey Deitch is pleased to present Walk on the Moon, an exhibition of new work by Alteronce Gumby, the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery. Structured around four separate yet intertwined movements that incorporate each facet of Gumby’s ever-evolving practice—from painting, to sculpture, to installation and sound—Walk on the Moon presents the latest discoveries and innovations from his sustained research into and exploration of the material properties of color and how they shape human perception.

A pillar of Gumby’s work and primary vehicle for his experimentation with color has been a form of abstract painting entirely his own, one that incorporates mirrors and acrylics, colored glass and a vast array of gemstones, from agate to quartz, lapis to malachite. In a suite of six new square ‘tonal’ paintings, Gumby organizes his palette around a single color unique to each one, resulting in intensely concentrated expressions of a given hue or tonality. Placed throughout each composition are ‘organites’ that Gumby creates using gemstones, conductive metals, and resin. Channeling the energetic properties of color into each organite, Gumby deploys them as magnifiers of that very energy. Though the shifting and shimmering surfaces of each painting change according to the available light in a given environment, several remain anchored by the presence of sacred geometry—the square, pyramid, and circle—hovering within their compositions. Along with the inclusion of our mirrored reflection, these fundamental forms open up portals for the imagination.