Shaan Syed’s conceptual practice plays with various modes of painting, speaking to both abstract and expressionist traditions. In trying to “objectify a flat surface,” Syed’s paintings both illustrate depth and use tricks of color to defy it. “My paintings merge abstract and representational elements and play with the depthless space of the printed image, the non-space of the computer screen, and the physical space of the painted object,” he says. In the series “When You’re High” (2006-7), crisscrossing bands of diagonal colors are imposed over a black background—displayed alongside one another, the paintings include the visual cues to denote distance and vanishing points, and yet are distinctly flat.