Subtlety and complexity are increasingly becoming rare qualities in the age of art-as-commodity, wherein far too many painters strive for a signature style as simplistically pat as a corporate logo. This, however, does not stop Khurshid Alam Saleem, a painter born in Bangladesh and based in New York, from enlivening his large acrylics on canvas with all manner of chromatic and tactile nuances which prove richly rewarding for the thoughtful viewer.

At the same time, Saleem’s abstract compositions have a striking impact with their bold, roughly geometric color areas and unique contrasts between rugged texture and vibrant color saturation. Thus one is initially struck by the sheer physical presence of his paintings, and only later further seduced by the more intimate pleasures with which they reward closer contemplation.

Above all, Saleem is a consummate colorist, revealing his mastery in a luminous yet subdued range of sunny yellows, transcendent blues, earthy reds, and other skillfully blended or superimposed secondary hues, with which he achieves exquisite harmonies unlike anything else in contemporary painting. In a large canvas called “Image of Nature 1”, for example, he explores unexpected relationships between various tones of gray and yellow, intermingling them in a manner that makes one perceive how these two unlikely colors work in concert, as though for the very first time.

By contrast, more densely saturated verdant greens and oceanic blues, achieved via the layering of translucent veils of color that darken and deepen with each successive application yet retain a mysterious, muted underglow, are featured in canvases such as “Image of Nature 6” and “Image of Nature 10”,’ where they radiate a somber resonance akin to Rothko. But there the resemblance ends; for if Rothko was a minimalist, Saleem is a maximalist in terms of the number of formal elements he brings into play in each canvas, layering his compositions to achieve a mosaic-like complexity; laying down broad, broken strokes to create tantalizing spatial tensions that simultaneously affirm and disrupt the two-dimensionality of the picture plane with rectangular shapes that one would be tempted to liken to gem-like stones shimmering below the surface of crystalline water, if not for the adamantly non-referential thrust of Saleem’s work.

As many of his titles indicate, nature is Saleem’s most constant source of inspiration. Yet nothing so obvious as the lay of the land comes across in his compositions, which, unlike those of many other abstract artists who may be equally enamored of nature, do not rely on references to the conventions of traditional landscape painting. Rather, a sense of deeper natural essences, and even more elusive atmospheric allusions, sets Saleem’s work apart from that of his contemporaries.

All of which is to emphasize that there is no hint of superficial resemblances to be discerned in these paintings; each is an autonomous aesthetic entity, evoking a sense of movement or stillness, turbulence or calm, through the language of painting itself; through the resources of an artist possessed of a remarkable gestural vocabulary. Indeed, Saleem’s arsenal of painterly effects ranges from thick impasto to delicate staining techniques, and he is not reluctant to combine and contrast several modes of expression within a single composition, effortlessly juxtaposing craggy textures suggestive of mineral matter with areas of diluted, dripping pigment that appear as ethereal as if he had dipped his brush in liquid light.

Some of the more thickly encrusted areas in Saleem’s paintings are to be seen and sensuously savored in the bold rectangular forms which are a recurring motif in his compositions. Yet he somehow endows these most materially palpable forms with a paradoxical sense of flotation, of almost mystical suspension, that lends his paintings a peculiarly pregnant beauty, hinting at the metaphysical.

In doing so, Khurshid Alam Saleem raises intriguing questions about the very nature of matter and reality itself, even while creating works of art that initially arrest one’s attention and ultimately hold one’s interest by virtue of their remarkable optical and tactile qualities.

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Ed McCormack, one of the original contributing editors of Andy Warhol’s Interview, has written extensively on art and popular culture for Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, the New York Daily News and numerous other publications. At present, with his wife Jeannie McCormack, he publishes the art journal GALLERY & STUDIO. Most recently he wrote a catalog essay for the exhibition “Willem de Kooning, 1981-1986, at L&M Arts, New York City”.