If you go to Hirshhorn After Hours tonight, be sure to check out the Amy Sillman exhibit while you’re there. If tonight’s not in the cards, Third Person Singular runs through July 6th, so you’ve got some time.

Painter Amy Sillman is one funny lady. In her artist talk at the Hirshhorn, her first words explain why she’s standing at the podium, “I’m only coming over here because I didn’t want to sit over there [with the curators].” A casual woman with a curly bob, Sillman doesn’t fit the art world stereotype. She seems so unpretentious. But then again, she’s always winking — who knows what she’s really thinking. One thing’s for sure though; she hates to see her paintings scanned. In fact, she refuses. After cringing repeatedly at the sight of her boldly colorful paintings projected onto the wall, she states, “I can’t take [the] color,” and convinces curators Anne Ellegood and Ian Berry to focus only on her black and white work.

Sillman’s work has changed quite a bit over the years, and quite radically. Initially, she claims that this is due to a “a mean-ness of spirit,” but after laughing at her own joke, she states, “if you just keep making things and selling it, you’re a sell out.” Instead, she is interested in how her ideas grow and move into new bodies of work, and can’t seem to remain focused on one concept or method for years and years, like so many other contemporary artists do.

Sillman’s current body of work has been described as abstract, geometric and sculptural, however Sillman claims, pointing towards one of her projected pieces, “it doesn’t even look abstract to me. I know what that is.” The work began as six months of figure studies of her coupled friends, which evolved into memory drawings of each couple. The large-scale paintings on display at the Hirshhorn take these drawings steps further into ghastly colored abstraction. Fluorescent peaches and pinks meet hippie oranges, turquoises and greens, and sit next to muddy grays and browns: these colors are ugly, and the marks are harsh.

Sillman went to art school in New York in the 1970’s, and learned extensively about the “white male club of abstract expressionists.” The works in Third Person Singular clearly reference that era, but what they are saying is unclear. The always-winking Amy Sillman claims her abstraction contains irony through anxiety. The paintings do have a sense of discomfort, but would one get the joke if not told to look for it?

Third Person Singular will be on exhibit through July 6 at the Hirshhorn Museum. The museum is located at Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW and is open daily from 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Image of B courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York.