Roberta Smith reviews Ryan Nord Kitchen: Winter Paintings at Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, New York, on view though May 22, 2016.

Smith writes: "Mr. Kitchen works fast and loose on tablet-size canvases, reducing painting’s proclivity for grand gesture to a series of intimate scribbles, lines, dots, notional marks and hints of initials and artists’ signatures, as well as landscape studies and textile design. They have wonderful palettes and exude an effortless, tossed-off charm that is easy to underestimate. Seeing them in a group, however, emphasizes a careful system that accommodates a startling amount of variety."