Her first solo exhibition in the UK is currently showing at Josh Lilley, until 8th June. ‘Engagements’ includes new gestural paintings “with a genealogy in abstract expressionism, though I use techniques that have been historically used in creating pictorial space, so they also have a genealogy in landscape and figuration with concerns about light and perspective and figure–ground relationships”, the artist explains.

Curator Susan E. Sherrick is Mahinay’s champion for The Wick. She said: “from my first encounter with Erica’s work I was immediately drawn to her unique approach to surfaces and materials. For her paintings Sun Seeker and Lunar Tryst she incorporated a parachute within each composition – an element I have never seen before. The resulting artworks are truly sublime. When I had the opportunity to visit her studio in Los Angeles, I was struck by the palpable sense of energy and movement emanating from her paintings. It was a pleasure to speak with her and learn about her thoughtful and informed decisions regarding her materials. Based on our conversation and my experience with her art, I knew that I wanted to explore the possibility of us working together. I am grateful that the timing was right.”

Mahinay maintains she is interested in how she might arrive at images by layers of gestures, ranging from “confident, intuitive, and muscular to hesitant, uncertain and reactionary. I’m interested in this range— within a single work, across a body of work, and across my own evolution.” As her solo exhibition at Josh Lilley demonstrates, Mahinay’s works are dense with layers – literal layers of paint applied by dripping, pouring, scrawling, wiping, tossing, each adding their own evocative energy to the canvas.

“I think about continuity in my practice stemming from a core approach and curiosity about what is possible from any given medium paired with my ongoing questioning about art as a space to contemplate mortality, existence, spirituality—our humanness and our mind-body connection. The presence of my hand is recognisable and the inherent knowledge of touch and gesture calls upon limbic resonance to recognise a kind of “body-language” to the paintings.”

To Mahinay, these paintings become mirrors, but “when I make these paintings, I don’t want to be delusional in expecting them to provide access to a sublime experience, but in my process of mining out unexpected colours and forms within each work, they do speak to an exploration of vastness, solitude, and the infinite.” They carve out space for viewers to connect with the “more abstract human experience” – the side where uncertainty, instability and intuition take over. Indeed her greatest achievement, she reflects, is “having a sense that there is no end in sight to what’s possible and finding joy and a sense of freedom almost daily. Of course there are moments of frustration or struggle when a painting isn’t working out, but getting to a place where I can trust-fall into the process and be excited about the moments of feeling lost or stuck because those are often pivot points that make way for discoveries within the work.”

Mahinay has a lot in the pipeline, including a group exhibition on Abstract Expressionism at a private residence in Laguna Niguel, California, later this month, a residency in Guadalajara, Mexico, and next year, a solo exhibition at Galerie Greta Meert in Brussels. It’s easy to see how her works can translate and cross cultures, speaking to something beyond borders and rational language: “I am attracted to arriving at nameless forms and at-tip-of-the-tongue sensations because it leaves blank space to fill in and actively project on to. When the work finds a place that sits just on the cusp of articulation, it’s at a place where it can operate beyond me and the limits of all my (good) intentions.”