Michael Childress

Take a closer look inside Michael Childress’ solo exhibition “Toward Ourselves in an Unknown” 🌅 On view through February 7⁠ ⁠ #MichaelChildress #HESSEFLATOW

🎇Happy New Year!🎇 This year flew by, apparently without any main grid posts by me. So, I’ll use this last moment of 2025 to announce my show “Toward Ourselves in an Unknown” opening next year (week 😉) on Friday 1/9 at @hesse_flatow I’ll be showing these panel paintings, some drawings, and a sweet bench/cabinet colab with @davidaerickson of @boxco.studio Excited for 2026 to start off with a bang! 🌋🍾 Also many thanks to @shabez.j for taking my portrait with Ramona 💜

Amazing how time flies! It’s the last day to see my show “Towards Ourselves in an Unknown” @hesse_flatow Thank you Karen, Rana, and the whole team for everything 💗

CLOSING TOMORROW:⁠ Michael Childress: "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown"⁠ ⁠ Childress has long been interested in the way that abstraction provides a language to describe complex reality through simplified spatial models, often using them as points of entry to ponder the mechanics of the universe. In his third solo-presentation with the gallery, Childress debuts a new body of work inspired by the light cone diagram in special relativity, which illustrates the trajectory of light as seen by an observer at any present moment, essentially giving shape to the experience of perception itself.⁠ ⁠ Come by until 6pm tomorrow to catch the last hours of "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown"!⁠ ⁠ @tobe3d ⁠ ⁠ Images: 1) Michael Childress, "Chartreuse Scene", 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 19 x 24 inches (48 x 60 cm). 3) Michael Childress, "Oblate Perrindo", 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 25.5 x 36.5 inches (64 x 92 cm). 5) Michael Childress, "Pink Picture", 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 21.5 x 22 inches (54 x 55 cm). Courtesy of the artist and HESSE FLATOW, New York. Photo: ©Jenny Gorman.⁠

FINAL DAYS to catch "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown", a solo exhibition by Massachusetts-based artist Michael Childress.⁠ ⁠ The exhibition’s title borrows a line from a 1950s Frank O’Hara poem about an enlightened way of looking out onto the world. Describing the perception of the color green from a vegetal leafy surface down to its microscopic layers of chlorophyll, represents for Childress the possibilities of the unobservable, before light travels towards ourselves into the present moment and continues thereafter back into the unknown.⁠ ⁠ “Toward Ourselves in an Unknown” is currently on view at the gallery’s Tribeca location through Saturday, February 7.⁠ ⁠ Images: 1) Michael Childress, "Hot Echo", 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 15.5 x 31.5 inches (39 x 80 cm). 3) Michael Childress, "Floating Point", 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 22 x 32 inches (55 x 81 cm). 5) Michael Childress, "Vertex Wave", 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 13 x 37.5 inches (33 x 95 cm). Courtesy of the artist and HESSE FLATOW, New York. Photo: ©Jenny Gorman.

💥 Exploded View 💥 the many become one and are thus increased by one 💥

Michael Childress' "Exploded View" is featured in his current solo exhibition “Toward Ourselves in an Unknown”, on view at the gallery’s Tribeca location through February 7.⁠ ⁠ Spilling into the space of the gallery and acknowledging a greater dialogue between the decorative and utilitarian, is a custom bench created in collaboration with David Erickson of Massachusetts-based Boxco Studios. Stained and adorned with the same applications as the wall works, the bench invites audiences to take a seat!⁠ ⁠ Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11am to 6pm.⁠ ⁠ Images: Michael Childress, “Exploded View”, 2025, Bench cabinet with three drawer compartments (two on one side, one on the other), 21 x 22 x 66 inches (53 x 55 x 167 cm). Courtesy of the artist and HESSE FLATOW, New York. Photo: ©Jenny Gorman.

Michael Childress' "The Sky Ripped Open" and "Bright Night" are featured in his current solo exhibition “Toward Ourselves in an Unknown”, on view at the gallery’s Tribeca location through Feb 7.⁠ ⁠ Turning to plywood as a substrate, Childress complicates the relationship between image and object, catapulting what is typically designated as a frame or support into the foreground. Against a backdrop of shifting fields of color are centralized vignettes resembling washy, painterly landscapes, reminiscent of en plein air watercolors the artist has made in recent years. These impressionistic snapshots are analogous to photons at the moment of perception, moving across space and time in the way that memories focus and fade in our minds.⁠ ⁠ Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11am to 6pm.⁠ ⁠ Images: 1) Michael Childress, “The Sky Ripped Open”, 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 19 x 39 inches (43 x 99 cm). 3) Michael Childress, “Bright Night”, 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 16 x 30 inches (40 x 76 cm). Courtesy of the artist and HESSE FLATOW, New York. Photo: ©Jenny Gorman.

Michael Childress' "Thought Axis" series is featured in his current solo exhibition “Toward Ourselves in an Unknown”, on view at the gallery’s Tribeca location through February 7.⁠ ⁠ Known for his stained canvases that combine hard-edge geometries with fluid transitions of color, Childress creates compositions that serve as field recordings for invisible forces like gravity and surface tension at play. Whereas in his canvases, circular forms saturate and radiate outward; in his newer panels, he flips the two-dimensional circle on its side in favor of the rectilinear. Graphite drawings referencing the hourglass-shaped schematic feature rotating discs along a central axis, alluding to both wavelengths of light emanating at various widths and distances as well as panoramic images cycling before a stationary viewer.⁠ ⁠ Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 11am to 6pm.⁠ ⁠ Images: ⁠ 1) Michael Childress, “Thought Axis 5”, 2025, Pencil on paper, 9x12 inches (22x30 cm), 14x17 inches framed (35x43 cm framed). 2) Michael Childress, “Thought Axis 1”, 2025, Pencil on paper, 9x12 inches (22x30 cm), 14x17 inches framed (35x43 cm framed). 3) Michael Childress, “Thought Axis 3”, 2025, Pencil on paper, 9x12 inches (22x30 cm), 14x17 inches framed (35x43 cm framed). 4) Michael Childress, “Thought Axis 7", 2025, Pencil on paper, 9x12 inches (22x30 cm), 14x17 inches framed (35x43 cm framed). 5) Michael Childress, “Thought Axis 9”, 2025, Pencil on paper, 9x12 inches (22x30 cm), 14x17 inches framed (35x43 cm framed). ⁠Courtesy of the artist and HESSE FLATOW, New York. Photo: ©Jenny Gorman.

OPENING TONIGHT:⁠ Michael Childress: "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown⁠"⁠ January 9 - February 7, 2026⁠ Opening Reception: Friday, January 9th 6-8pm⁠ ⁠⁠ Childress has long been interested in the way that abstraction provides a language to describe complex reality through simplified spatial models, often using them as points of entry to ponder the mechanics of the universe. In his third solo-presentation with the gallery, Childress debuts a new body of work inspired by the light cone diagram in special relativity, which illustrates the trajectory of light as seen by an observer at any present moment, essentially giving shape to the experience of perception itself.⁠ ⁠ We hope to see you there! ⁠ ⁠ Installation Views, Michael Childress: "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown", HESSE FLATOW, New York. Courtesy of the artist and HESSE FLATOW, New York. Photo: ©Jenny Gorman.

So happy to include this painting in “Order and Other” opening tomorrow @main_projects_ in Richmond! Pluto, 2025 what a line up! 💫 @beverlyacha @trudybenson @mollyagreene @angelaheisch @alessandro_keegan @matt_kleberg @tannerlind_studio @zoe_mcguire @robert_william_moreland @erinokeefeart @machteld_rullens @richardtinkler @markjoshuaepstein

UPCOMING:⁠ Michael Childress: "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown⁠"⁠ January 9 - February 7, 2026⁠ Opening Reception: Friday, January 9th 6-8pm⁠ ⁠ HESSE FLATOW is pleased to announce the opening of "Toward Ourselves in an Unknown", a solo exhibition featuring graphite drawings, stained composite panels, and a bench collaboration by Michael Childress.⁠ ⁠ Known for his stained canvases that combine hard-edge geometries with fluid transitions of color, Childress creates compositions that serve as field recordings for invisible forces like gravity and surface tension at play. Whereas in his canvases, circular forms saturate and radiate outward; in his newer panels, he flips the two-dimensional circle on its side in favor of the rectilinear. Graphite drawings referencing the hourglass-shaped schematic feature rotating discs along a central axis, alluding to both wavelengths of light emanating at various widths and distances as well as panoramic images cycling before a stationary viewer.⁠ ­⁠ Turning to plywood as a substrate, Childress complicates the relationship between image and object, catapulting what is typically designated as a frame or support into the foreground. Against a backdrop of shifting fields of color are centralized vignettes resembling washy, painterly landscapes, reminiscent of en plein air watercolors the artist has made in recent years. These impressionistic snapshots are analogous to photons at the moment of perception, moving across space and time in the way that memories focus and fade in our minds.⁠ ⁠ We hope to see you there! ⁠ ⁠ Image: Michael Childress, “Fluid Expanse" (detail), 2025, Acrylic and wax on wood, 12 x 42 inches (30 x 106 cm). Photo: Michael Childress.⁠ ⁠ ⁠@tobe3d