The Color of Monochrome: Three Gallery Exhibits Consider Color
Louis Jacobson for the Washington City Paper | May 28, 2025
At Hemphill Artworks, Schissel’s works couldn’t be more visually divergent. The exhibit includes several monumental, mostly monochromatic works, some as wide as 226 inches (just shy of 19 feet) and some as tall as 96 inches (or 8 feet), many of them backed by complementary wallpaper. The process of making these works is laborious, sometimes taking as long as 300 hours—that’s more than 12 days. They involve multiple coats of paint, often massaged into organic highlights, followed by painstakingly detailed patterns drawn in ink—radiating straight lines; geometrical shapes (sometimes highlighted in muted red); loops and whorls; and the occasional spirograph form. In their entirety, the large canvases suggest a frenzied, widescreen, digital universe, with touches of steampunk, topographical maps, neural networks, and surreal dreamscapes.