There are strong undercurrents of Indian mysticism to the psychedelic scenes of San Francisco artist Richard Colman, but even the most practised of yogis would be in danger of pulling a groin muscle trying to contort themselves in the shapes his subjects are throwing in Faces, Figures, Places and Things.

The hallucinatory world Colman leads us through, however, is not bound by such earthly constraints, and nor are its super-supple inhabitants. Their limbs stretch and bend, adding a linear geometry to the soft curves of their bodies which sensually interweave with one another in meditations on ritual, hierarchy and servitude. Colman’s lurid palette in powerfully bold, minimalist blocks only serves to intensify the spiritual trip on which he guides the viewer, and then there’s the piercing eyes, the disembodied (perhaps severed) heads, and the women eating each other’s hair…

Faces, Figures, Places and Things by Richard Colman is on view at Chandran Gallery on Geary Street until 6 November.

Three Figures, Five Heads, (orange)
Acrylic on canvas. 48″ x 48″