Negative space appears white-hot in the abstractions of Karin Davie and Caitlin Teal Price, who are exhibiting together in “The Reality Principle” at Pazo Fine Art’s D.C. location. Seattle’s Davie makes paintings that frame bright voids with glowing hues that often fade to black. Price, a local artist, makes photos that she alters with patterns of tiny cuts and subtle colored-pencil accents. Both women invoke qualities of light, whether in Davie’s white squares and squiggles or the rainbow-outlined flares often at the center of Price’s pictures.
The two share a taste for intense color and dramatic composition, and both carve their artworks. Davie clips notches into the edges of some of her canvases and joins the two panels of “Down My Spine No. 1 (Diptych)” along undulating edges that fit together neatly. Price etches fields of tiny slashes that cohere into swooping forms that complement the rounded shapes she photographs. Each artist positions clouds of swirling color on black backdrops in a way that — even if Davie hadn’t titled a series “Beam Me Up” — elicits an intergalactic vibe.
Karin Davie and Caitlin Teal Price: The Reality Principle Through May 25 at Pazo Fine Art, 1932 9th St. NW (entrance at 1917 9½ St. NW). pazofineart.com. 571-315-5279.