Peter Shear opens Voice Leading, a solo exhibition of new paintings, at Mendes Wood DM's Casa Iramaia space in São Paulo on Saturday 7 November, 12-6pm, running into January. Working at close quarters with each canvas, Shear lets the image accumulate meaning as it is made, leaving part of the decision-making visible and room for what is still to come.

The works were grouped by the pairs Shear kept finding among them — motifs that insist on reappearing, each time slightly different, setting up a linear progression through colour, gesture and composition. The title borrows a term from music theory, describing how each melodic line moves smoothly from one chord to the next, and the paintings work the same way: at times complementing one another, at times clashing, while the repertoire of images each viewer brings to them stays in play.