Sam Gilliam creates lively, patchwork compositions by painting in acrylic on birch panels, then cutting the panels into smallish pieces and recombining them. He insistently shuffles and calls attention to what he perceives to be painting’s essential elements—especially liquified color, various methods of paint application, and the physical nature of the painting surface. Animated by subtle rhythms and an often surprising use of color, Gilliam’s churning, often vertiginous polyptychs replace the orderly patterns of altarpieces with something much more whimsical and open-ended.

Bits of a single