FIELDS AND FORMATIONS
A Group Exhibition Exploring Mid-Atlantic Abstraction

September 3, 2021 - January 7, 2022

Flow 流, Jae Ko

Black Egg Hatches, Jo Smail

Black Egg Hatches, Jo Smail

OPENING EVENT:
Friday, September 10, 2021 | 5 - 9 PM during first Friday

Organized by The Delaware Contemporary’s inaugural Curator-in-Residence Kristen Hileman, Fields and Formations brings together approximately 70 works by 12 distinguished women and non-binary artists from the Mid-Atlantic region who infuse abstract paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture with emotional and metaphorical content. The artists, who span five decades in age, share interests in luminous color, repeated forms, the power of materials, and the meditative aspects of making labor-intensive works. The exhibition celebrates artists who have developed a significant part of their careers in a region bounded by Philadelphia to the north and Washington, DC to the south. Many of these artists acknowledge the influence of Alma Thomas (1891-1978) and Anne Truitt (1921-2004), important but under-recognized women artists who were based in Washington and have too often been placed at the margins of the mid-20th-century Washington Color School of abstract field painters. At the same time, Fields and Formations demonstrates that the broader Mid-Atlantic area’s diverse contributions to the story of American abstraction continue to be vibrant and profound during the beginning decades of the 21st century. 

FEATURED ARTISTS:
Natessa Amin, Arden Bendler Browning, Carol Brown Goldberg, Alex Ebstein, Alexis Granwell, Jesse Harrod, Maren Hassinger, Jae Ko, Linling Lu, linn meyers, Maggie Michael and Jo Smail

Carole Bieber & Marc Ham Gallery and DuPont I & II Galleries

Available for purchase in the Gallery Shop, this exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, designed by Glenn Dellon and with essays by Hileman and Philadelphia-based art historian and curator Jennie Hirsh. Fields and Formations travels to the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in spring 2022.