Creating brilliantly colored, gem like non-objective drawings whose designs resemble diagrams, James Siena has worked as an artist in New York since the 1980s. He uses a vertical format on aluminum, creating pieces that appear to float on the wall with designs that are rigorously organized with asymmetrical patterns.

A determined abstract painter, he says: "An abstract painting is a real thing that shouldn't point to the world. I want it to take you out of the real world. . . . I construct pictures that, I hope, are so complex even a baby can understand them."

Siena was born and raised in California, primarily Palo Alto. For college, he attended Cornell University, spent six months in Spain, and then had a stint with a perfor...