Amanda Valdez talks to painter Jonathan Lasker about his early work, recently on view at Cheim & Read, New York.

Lasker notes that his paintings "relate to the light of nature. They are, in a way, abstract landscapes. But even in 3 Card Monte the blue and lavender are pretty close in value and really resonate in a way that creates light. I also used complimentary colors in relatively close values in paintings at that time. I would gray them so you wouldn't get such a strong afterimage, but you would get some kind of color resonance. All of these things led me to color choices which were odd. But it wasn't the oddness that I was after but a resonance and visuality. I was more interested in sensation than beauty, let's put it that way. Although, beauty is always up for redefinition."