In Shelter, the fourth solo exhibition of Angela de la Cruz at Galerie Thomas Schulte, the artist builds on her distinctive approach, using the languages of painting and minimalism to physically and emotionally heightened effect. A new series of monochrome works, like sculptures mounted on the wall, comprises layers of stretched and loose canvas beneath an aluminum surface – a firm outer shell that betrays its own fragility through its dents and crinkles. The canvas underneath, similarly crushed and crumpled, begins to ooze or billow out around the edges to reveal a soft inner flesh. Subtle shifts and unexpected affinities play out across these disparate material surfaces: sturdiness gives way to vulnerability, cover dissolves into exposure, geometry collapses into structural lack. Like makeshift shields or soft, temporary enclosures, the works in Shelter suggest a precarious form of protection. A response, perhaps, to an equally precarious environment – confronting us with both an…