Jammed packed with cells in various stages of development, Teo Gonzalez’s minimalist paintings are something of an obsessive pursuit. Fortunately for Gonzalez, his meticulous efforts have recently been rewarded by his work being acquired by major museums on both coasts (MoMA, LACMA and NGA). D.C. art enthusiasts have until Saturday to catch Gonzalez’s current solo show at Irvine Contemporary Art in Dupont Circle and see for themselves what all the fuss is about.

Gonzalez’s paintings are testaments to the power of Minimalism. Each work is done on a simple, yet powerful square canvas. He makes use of mostly monochromatic color schemes such as white, red, blue and black. On top of these rich hues Gonzalez paints hundreds or potentially thousands of individual black cells (sometimes other colors as well) aligned roughly into a grid. Each cell is unique although they are all composed of a membrane and a nucleus.

Really, that’s all there is to it … at least from a descriptive standpoint. Anything else is superfluous. Gonzalez’s work becomes a bit more interesting when one considers the optical and emotional impact of the work.