Borna Sammak, Untitled, 2015, heat applied T-shirt graphics and embroidery on canvas, 40″ x 30″. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and JTT, New York © Borna Sammack

Long before crunchyfound a thrilling new life as a pejorative for hippies, the journalist Nico Colchester used it to describe a set of economic conditions: “Crunchy systems,” he wrote, “are those in which small changes have big effects leaving those affected by them in no doubt whether they are up or down, rich or broke, winning or losing, dead or alive … sogginessis comfortable uncertainty.”

“Crunchy,” a new group show at Marianne Boesky Gallery, takes its inspiration from Colchester’s definition, though it owes just as much to the word’s new, granola-centric connotation. Organized by Clayton Press and Gregory Linn, it collects essentially tactile paintings—the hard, the crisp, the agreeably sharp. “It is about the materiality of material,” they say, which sounds tautological until you look at the paintings, all of which induce various forms of synesthesia. You’ll want to bite some of them. Don’t—don‘t make the same mistake I did. There are no flavors there.

“Crunchy” is up through February 21.

Anna Betbeze, Muff, 2015, acid dyes, ash, wool, 61″ x 80″. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Kate Werble Gallery, New York © Anna Betbeze

Anthony Pearson, Untitled (Plaster Positive) (detail), 2013, pigmented hydrocal in walnut frame, 43 1/2″ x 31 1/2″ x 3″. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York © Anthony Pearson

Installation view (works by Heather Cook). Courtesy of Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York. Photo credit: Jason Wyche

Ethan Greenbaum, Post, 2015, direct to substrate print on vacuum formed PETG and spray enamel, 41 3/8″ x 48 1/8″. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and KANSAS, New York © Ethan Greenbaum