Paper is versatile and tough, and yet there is part of it that is precious. It's a universal surface, too, something where ideas and sketches are made, but also some historically significant moments occurred on works on paper. There is something about works on paper that continues to intrigue me, something I find endlessly fascinating as both the genesis of an idea and the medium of experimentation that becomes a fine art piece itself. James Ulmer, a painter who has long used bright colors and flat figures in a hybrid of abstract figuration, has a new show, Paper Works!, on view at Marvin Gardens in Ridgewod. Ulmer's talent has been to flatten a moment, and yet make it feel like a movement is being witnessed, and on paper, his skill as a craftsman shines through. —Evan Pricco