Linling Lu Portfolios

American University Museum Katzen Art Center, Washington, DC

January 29, 2022 – May 22, 2022

In collaboration with the American University Museum, The Delaware Contemporary is thrilled to announce Fields and Formations, an exhibition of 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. Organized by Curator-in-Residence Kristen Hileman, this exhibition celebrates artists who have developed a significant part of their careers in a region between the bookends of Philadelphia to the north and Washington, DC to the south. We are honored to give a platform to artists of such significant accomplishment who deserve critical recognition, especially those who have spent much of their careers living and working in our region.

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. 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.

Conceived in 2019 by curator Kristen Hileman, this exhibition featuring female and non- binary artists that were aesthetically and regionally connected was well-timed to coincide with The Delaware Contemporary’s plans to celebrate the centennial year of the 19th Amendment; and, to redefine our focus in the Mid-Atlantic region. Like organizations, businesses, and individuals across the globe, we experienced a pandemic that impacted our world and threatened our efforts to produce and deliver exhibitions to the public. Two years later, The Delaware Contemporary is honored to present Fields and Formations and celebrate the not only the resilience of the artists, curators, and staff involved, but the profound resilience of art.

Fields and Formations is the feature exhibition to our Fall/Winter2021 Season: PRESENTATION centered on innovation through materiality, process, and craftsmanship. Abstraction reigns supreme this season, showcasing the artists as masters of their distinctive techniques. Through repetition and organic patterns with a diverse variety of material, the works present stunning visual aesthetics and raise questions about how abstraction can help us reimagine the spaces we inhabit.

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

Fields and Formations 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.