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Artist J. Margulis Asks Viewers to Keep Moving
At Nicolas Auvray Gallery, Margulis extends the legacy of Venezuelan kinetic art pioneers like Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto into a new, more complex chromatic language.
At Nicolas Auvray Gallery, Margulis extends the legacy of Venezuelan kinetic art pioneers like Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto into a new, more complex chromatic language.
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At Nicolas Auvray Gallery, “J. Margulis: Surfacing Forms” marks the most extensive presentation to date of Venezuelan-born artist J. Margulis’s kinetic wall reliefs. On view through Sunday, October 18, 2026, the New York show brings together intimately scaled pieces, monumental horizontal works, and multi-panel compositions that are constructed from thin, angled strips of painted acrylic that manipulate light and the perception of color across their rigged surfaces. The centerpiece, Dissolutions (2026), is composed of 10 panels and measures over 16 feet, and the surface appears to shift hues—purples, pinks, blues, and yellows—depending on where the viewer is standing.
That optical shifting is the crux of “Surfacing Forms.” The reliefs stay static, but what changes is the viewer, whose movement through the gallery spaces reorganizes the colors and forms embedded within each construction; no single perspective of the work tells the whole story. In his artist statement, Margulis describes the work as “synopodic,” a term he coined to describe pieces that hold multiple, often irreconcilable visual states all housed within a single form. Meaning and perspective are continuously navigated, and the relationship among these viewpoints is what creates an ineffable visual harmony. It’s an ambitious conceit and asks viewers to do something not commonly encouraged when viewing art: keep moving.
The lineage here is apparent without being derivative. Margulis’s work draws on Venezuela’s rich kinetic and optical art tradition, specifically the work of Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto, artists who spent their careers challenging the idea that art is predicated on a fixed perspective. While Cruz-Diez and Soto each explored a multitude of forms, what sets Margulis’s practice apart is his sharply honed and concise visual language. Margulis is forever pursuing denser, more elaborate structures and strategic exploration of color, while also experimenting with both mono- and polychromatic compositions.
The shifting balance between form, color, and scale results in each work containing its own self-contained thesis, one that necessitates a moving viewer to be fully realized. Whether a 10-panel behemoth or a more modestly scaled, single-relief form, Margulis executes each with the same caliber of detail and attention to chromatic relationships, promising a singular and deeply personal experience for each viewer who encounters them.
“J. Marguilis: Surfacing Forms” is on view at Nicolas Auvray Gallery, New York, through October 18, 2026.