Across cultures and throughout history, rainbows have symbolized many things. In 2012, the artist sought to give viewers an opportunity to reflect on why. By depicting the rainbow at night—an imaginative recontextualization rather than a literal one—the artist aimed to present it as if seen for the first time. (It would later become clear that it wasn’t night at all, but rather the space of imagination itself.)

Though the paintings are clearly part of the same visual family, each is executed differently. A recurring water motif runs through the series, and the compositions are built through repeated layers of semi-transparent rainbow hues, interwoven with transparent veils of black. These large-scale works are dark—at times difficult to fully perceive—yet they come alive under the right light conditions. Deep, glossy black saturates the surfaces, holding the color within and allowing the image to subtly shift with the environment.

These are not depictions of rainbows, but invitations into rainbowness itself.