Trotter&Sholer is pleased to present Odd Poetry, a solo exhibition by Jane Haimes. This exhibition presents a series of Haimes’ bright and distinctive paintings on wooden panels.
Each of Haimes’ paintings is composed of unique shapes and a collection of colors. For Haimes these works are distinctly non-narrative. Instead, she thinks of them as almost “little tone poems”. They are evocative, but not literal. Color can be understood as the central subject of Haimes’ work. The shapes and colors are woven together to evoke reactions untethered from the tangible world.
The work is largely about process and form. A single painting may take weeks or even months to complete. She begins by discovering shapes; looking for configurations she has never seen before, utilizing color – and its hues and saturation – in tandem with shape to force images to stretch and contort themselves within a 2-dimensional picture plane. These works will go through multiple iterations before reaching their final form. When completed, each composition exists as its own abstract object, its own compact poem, calling for the viewer to interrogate and explore its boundaries.
In the contemporary context of social media, attention fatigue, and rapid cultural cycles, measured exploration of form and labored process is increasingly rare. Haimes’ paintings, however, beg a more formalist understanding. Her detail-oriented process of layering on her hand-mixed paints, using multiple glazes – alternating between painting on the
colors and sanding down the surface to eliminate any brushstrokes or irregularities – creates a visually compelling object that is self-referential.
In the end, the shapes and the colors no longer visually appear as painted, rather, they have been labored into one cohesive image that simply is. They ask us to feel rather than analyze. The composition of the flashe paint aids in this effort, drying as a concrete-like matte finish. The only hint to her meticulous method are the lines of dried paint dripping
down the sides of each wood panel. Perhaps this nod to imperfection, or to the artist’s hand, is why Haimes prefers the works remain unframed. The dripped edges of the panel add to the poetry.
Odd Poetry will be on view January 8th through January 31st, 2026 at 168 Suffolk Street.
