Joe Reihsen uses varying thicknesses of paint to create textured, abstract works that are simultaneously ethereal and dense. His primarily pastel palette and rough geometric compositions lend his paintings a near-mystical quality, while the tactile masses of paint applied as top layers possess an undeniable materiality. With flat underlayers that often appear to have been produced through the scraping away of paint, the works' tension lies in their contrast of surfaces: smooth is juxtaposed with rough, addition with subtraction. With titles like I Should've Gotten Your Number After the Orgy (2013) and Busty Bombshell In Pasadena (2013), Reihsen's paintings are also whimsical, alluding to narratives and ideas outside the picture frame.