John Yau considers the work of Thomas Nozkowski on the occasion of the exhibition New Editions and Related Drawings at Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, New York, on view through June 16.

Yau writes: "if [Nozkowski] likes a motif in a painting that he's working on, but knows it has to go, he will move it onto a work on paper. One work leads to another, eventually forming a maze of motifs. One could say this maze is a fairly accurate reflection of Nozkowski's view of life. At the heart of Nozkowski's practice is improvisation, a willingness to take something (anything) and do something else to it. He seems to have been one of the few of his generation to understand Jasper Johns's declaration: 'Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it. Do something else to it, etc.' "