After receiving early acclaim in the 1960s for pieces ranging from shaped-canvas paintings to ingeniously designed light works, Mary Corse has dedicated the succeeding decades to quietly yet steadily establishing a unique practice at the crossroads of Abstract Expressionism and American Minimalism. Despite her now-frequent association with California’s Light and Space movement, Corse evolved independent of the region’s dominant personalities, philosophies, and scenes. Instead, she has pursued her vision almost entirely on the periphery of the art-world spotlight. As a result, her more than 50-year commitment to her craft has been nearly as unheralded as it has been relentless and groundbreaking. Corse’s highly refined vocabulary synergizes traits normally thought to be irreconcilable: gestural brushstrokes reminiscent of early influences like Willem de Kooning; precise geometric compositions evoking Josef Albers, often featuring the vertical band as he featured the square; and a palette reduced through Donald Judd-like discipline to white, black, and the primary colors. Yet these characteristics take on an exceptional quality through Corse’s innovative handling of materials that both capture and refract light, insuring that our perceptions of her paintings change as the lighting shifts or we move about the space. These techniques enable Corse to create a dynamic interplay between her pieces and the viewer. From one viewing position, a single Corse painting may appear to be a monochromatic, matt-finish canvas, executed with a degree of precision that suggests industrial fabrication. But from a slightly different viewing position, the same piece may abruptly shift identities, revealing a composition of various bands in subtly different shades, a glittering texture that radiates light, and lively signs of the artist’s hand. Through this visual push and pull, Corse makes the inherent abstractness of human perception felt instead of merely seen. Mary Corse was born in Berkeley in 1945 and earned her BFA from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968. She has shown extensively in the US and abroad in the decades since, including such historically significant exhibitions as Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and later traveling to the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; Phenomenal: California Light and Space at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and Venice in Venice, an official collateral exhibition of the 54th Venice Biennale. Corse’s works reside in the permanent collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Menil Collection, Houston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, among many others. She is a past recipient of the Guggenheim’s Theodoron Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Cartier Foundation Award. She lives and works in Los Angeles.