The dialectics of intention and chance define Steir's five-decade long practice; in the Kairos paintings, Steir furthers her investigation of non-objective painting with planes of complex color and texture situated on and between a central fissure. The exhibition title, Kairos—meaning a propitious moment for decision or action—originates from Trance Abyss, a poem by Anne Waldman written specifically with this body of work in mind and published in the exhibition catalogue. Observing their temporal dynamics, Waldman remarks, "There is a rupture in the fabric of Pat Steir's current paintings. The explosive Waterfalls offered a full-on stereophonic experience of entering spaces of celestial climatic ‘pours’ and one feels the visceral impact of her entities in space. But here we peer into the heavenly abyss, the beauteous, unsettling rift which is a contentious point of origin between two sides or bodies of similar yet severed wholes."