Fields and Formations A Survey of Mid-Atlantic Abstraction

January 29–May 22, 2022
Organized by The Delaware Contemporary’s inaugural Curator-in-Residence Kristen Hileman

View our hours of operation and health and safety terms before your visit.

Read the exhibition catalog online, featuring essay by curator Kristen Hileman.

Jo Smail, Black Egg Hatches, 2021

Jo Smail, Black Egg Hatches, 2021. Acrylic, African fabric, and pencil on canvas 70 x 60 in. Courtesy of the artist and Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD. Photograph by Julien Davis.

Jae Ko, 流 (Flow), 2021

Jae Ko, 流 (Flow), 2018. Recycled rolled paper, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist. Photo courtesy of Wavelength. 

Arden Bendler Browning, VR Painting 12, 2020

Arden Bendler Browning, VR Painting 122020. Flashe and acrylic on shaped panel 40 x 50 in. Courtesy of the artist and Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA. Photo credit: Karen Mauch.

Carol Brown Goldberg, PM 11, 2011

Carol Brown Goldberg, PM 112011. Ink on handmade paper 11 x 8.5 in. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Greg Staley.

Fields and Formations

Videographer: Greg Staley.

"Fields and Formations" artist panel

1:06:23

On February 21, 2021 the American University Museum virtually hosted curator Kristen Hileman and several artists presenting work in Fields and Formations, and exhibit that 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.

Featuring 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 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. 

Featuring 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.

This exhibition was on view at The Delware Contemporary in fall 2021.