Rainer Gross’s (German, b. 1951) paintings are never as simple as they may seem. For his series Impressions and Strokes (2014–2015) and Contact Paintings (2013–2014), Gross loads each surface with many layers of paint, which, in some cases, he then sandwiches with another surface and peels them apart to both add and remove pigment. The process creates the quality of a well-worn wall that has been repainted many times, and produces a negative twin of the original painting that Gross often displays as diptychs. Inspired by the birth of his first child in 1993, Gross moved past the figurative nature of his early work and focused on a more meditative, abstract aesthetic. His progression shows an artist exploring the essential nature of things.