Way down in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in a studio building a stone's throw from the water's edge of Gowanus Bay, Jaqueline Cedar is pushing pink paint around on a canvas. Included in edition #73 of New American Paintings, Cedar teaches painting at Columbia and works in the education department of the Guggenheim, but her most important role is working as an artist. And her recent work is pretty exciting.

Fascinated by Arshile Gorky and Orphic Cubism, Cedar's work pushes and pulls figures back and forth between rich geometric backdrops of abstraction, constantly toying with figuration, color, form, and space. She often works on several paintings at a time, and Cedar isn't afraid of constantly moving around. She lives in Little Italy, works uptown, and commutes to her studio not far from the tail end of the N train in Brooklyn. I stopped by for a studio visit this week. More photos after the jump. – Evan J. Garza