On the 4th floor of one of Chelsea’s heavily trafficked art buildings, Morgan Lehman gallery is presenting a jazzy solo exhibition, Pan Con Timba, by abstract, musically-influenced painter Raymond Saá. This exhibition brings together the artist’s love for music that he skillfully reflects in his rhythmic paintings and spice of his Cuban background; after all , Pan Con Timba is not only a jazz song that inspired Saá, but also a famous Cuban sandwich with guava preserves.
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Raymond Saá’s meticulously cut shapes reminiscent of Matisse’s cutouts are stacked and layered, with very strategic spacing to reflect rhythmic flows of jazz music. The stitching on the edges adds a carefully designed touch as the artwork comes to life. The matte surfaces of his gouache pieces are particularly captivating as they absorb light and have velvety texture. The bright paintings in this show are somewhat flat at a first glance but at a closer inspection they are wonderfully sculptural as the artist has a layering method to achieve a three-dimensional effect.
Most pieces on canvas such as Untitled, 2025 are dominated by one color, in this case yellow which is then complemented by series of warm grays. This creates a complex illusion of both flat overlapping planes and cavernous depths. In particular, a circular form slightly to the right of the composition alludes to a sphere with a simple lighter accent that reads as a highlight out of a corner of an eye. Saá’s shapes reference a variety of subjects and objects depending on the viewer’s eye. The movement within the repetitious form creates new and more complex passages within the painting; what at first glance appears flat starts to emerge from the surface.
Some of the most complex pieces in the show are hiding away around the bend and are completely within the grayscale. Both Untitled, 2025, these works are smaller and are completed in gouache on densely layered pieces of paper. What makes these pieces different from the rest of the show is the way the grayscale escalates the illusion of depth. Highly contrasting linear shapes create a complex interwoven interaction. These gouache paintings shapeshift as one walks through the room, the layered tonality allows for shadows to appear.
Beside the fully grayscale pieces is Untitled, 2024, a smaller piece in the show carefully constructed of rectangular pieces of paper and dominated by mostly grey forms with pops of orages, yellows, and blue. The work showcases Saá’s unique post-it-like technique that resembles busy overlapping post-its on a vision board. In this particular work, Saá’s graphic and visual mastery is displayed in the woven shapes, as silhouetted figures of plants appear and disappear right before your eyes. These are undoubtedly reminiscent of Matisse’s leaf cutouts.
Despite Saa’s long history of referring to Matisse, there’s no denying the deep connection of his work to Joseph Albers’ study of color. He uses interacting colors, placing them carefully side by side to create optical illusions of space, depth, and movement. The pieces in the show are skillfully built on the deep knowledge of color theory and the way just slight changes can completely affect the mood and the way we perceive imagery. There is a great array of illusions that include transparencies, color shifting, and faux movement. The application and type of paint Saá uses has a flat finish and evenness in color, optimizing the hues and how they appear from all angles. Overall, the show is a refreshing upbeat escape that’s not to be missed during this busy season.
All images are courtesy of Morgan Lehman Gallery.
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Raymond Saá at Morgan Lehman Gallery, Pan con Timba, February 27 – March 29, 2025
About the writer: Anna Shukeylo is an artist, writer, educator, and curator working and living in the New York Metropolitan area. She has written for Artcritical, Painters on Painting, and Art Spiel. Her paintings have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Kean University, NJ, Manchester University, IN, and in group shows at Auxier/Kline, Equity Gallery, Stay Home Gallery, among others. @annashukeylo