“Stretch” was the title of Deborah Oropallo’s recent exhibition at Stephen Wirtz Gallery, and the term applies as much to the vertical blurring that distinguishes many of the paintings as to their maker’s apparent compulsion to continually challenge and extend her practice. Since the 1980s, the artist’s shows have been marked by some surprisingly sudden shifts in direction, but she has remained committed to challenging the dismissal of painting as moribund. While Oropallo no longer paints in oil, she continues to hone a sensibility concerned above all with the manipulation of pigment on canvas.

These days, the term “signature style” is often applied not only to brushwork, composition, and subject matter, but also to distinctive materials, which tend to become inextricably intertwined with the identity of the individual who uses them first or to most interesting effect. In the early ’90s, Los Angeles–based artist Rachel Lachowicz became known internationally for using red lipstick to create parodic appropriations of famous works by male artists—remaking, among others, Michelangelo’s David, a Carl Andre floor piece, and a group of Richard Serra’s leaning slabs. Lachowicz also made use