Aaron Garber-Maikovska: Cushion of Air

A survey of recent paintings, characterized by gestural bravado and vigorous colorways, from the kinetically minded abstract artist Los Angeles–based multimedia artist Aaron Garber-Maikovska (born 1978) works across painting, drawing, performance and video—interconnected modes of communicating a vernacular of somatic expression. Maikovska is best known for his bold abstract paintings of geometric forms and his drawings of galvanic linework. Using the artist’s own body as a catalyst for investigation, the works, produced between 2017 and 2023, are corporeal articulations yielded from a mantralike exercise in muscle memory, an attempt to carve out a space for creative freedom amid the social engineering and spatial division of the postmodern world. This first monograph of the artist’s work includes an essay by Cathleen Chaffee on performance and the body, an essay by Jan Tumlir exploring the depth and delight in his paintings, an in-depth interview between the artist and Orit Gat, in an immersive exploration of his multifaceted practice.