In Continuum, David Hornung advances an improvisational approach to geometric abstraction shaped by uncertainty, revision, and duration. Working without preparatory sketches, Hornung begins each painting through intuitive gestures that are gradually altered through layering, scraping, blotting, and sanding. The resulting compositions evolve slowly, resisting easy resolution in favor of surprise and instability.
The exhibition moves between graphic, architectonic structures and more diffuse, atmospheric fields. Works such as Tangent (2024) and Stadium (2025) emphasize solidity and spatial tension, while newer paintings like Sarabande (2025) dissolve form into fragmented color and shifting tonal gradients. In these later works, mass appears less fixed, hovering instead between balance and collapse.
While Hornung’s abstraction is largely formal, traces of recognition persist. In Celestial Navigation (2025), linear elements suggest constellations, hinting at human pattern-making embedded even within nonrepresentational systems. These moments recall the difficulty of fully separating abstraction from perception.
Alongside paintings, Continuum includes mixed-media collages that reflect a parallel studio practice. Hornung distinguishes between painting as a “plastic” process and collage as a “constructed” one, allowing the exhibition to unfold as a dialogue between intuition and structure, dissolution and assembly.
Exhibition Information
Location: JJ Murphy Gallery, Lower East Side
Website: https://www.jjmurphygallery.com
Hours: Thursday–Saturday, 12–6 PM
Exhibition Dates: November 20 – December 20, 2025
Featured Work
David Hornung
Celestial Navigation, 2025
Oil on canvas
