Tanya Leighton, Los Angeles, is delighted to announce ‘A More Distant Present’, a solo exhibition of new works by John Riepenhoff. Riepenhoff’s Night Sky paintings began as a way to distill ego out of authorship. For over a decade, he painted solely in the dark of night, letting the experience of seeing – not his hand – guide the work. The paintings are emergent, existing in the space between abstraction and realism, where perception blurs into sensation. The only realism that can exist is the present; the moment it slips into the past, it becomes abstract. Painting is the present suspended. Rooted in observation yet open to improvisation, Riepenhoff’s process draws from the natural and social landscapes that surround him. The newest works, all painted in Milwaukee, deepen the sense of atmosphere and interiority, shifting from the outward searching of earlier iterations to a more layered and ambient experience. Multiple passes build up over time, reframing and reforming the layers below, much like the night sky itself – a shifting, recursive continuum.