Berry Campbell

Berry Campbell is pleased to present its third solo exhibition of 99-year-old African American artist, Frank Wimberley (b. 1926). Based in Corona, Queens, and Sag Harbor, New York, Frank Wimberley works in a pure abstract style that comes out of the tradition of the Abstract Expressionist painters, particularly inspired by Willem de Kooning. Expressionism is a key to Wimberley's work. Throughout decades of varying art trends, Frank Wimberley has stayed true to his signature style of painterly and thickly textured works. Wimberley has long believed his approach provides the most authentic means of conveying his personal narrative, paralleling the artistic expression of his close friend and collector, legendary jazz musician Miles Davis. Frank Wimberley: Before More After Less is accompanied by a 68-page exhibition catalogue with a biography by Lisa N. Peters, PhD. Additionally, the catalogue will include original text by Frank Wimberley about his work in collage written for a group exhibition at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York in 1979. The exhibition will open on Thursday, February 6 and will run through March 8, 2025 with an opening reception on Saturday, February 15, 2025, 2 – 4pm.

Berry Campbell is pleased to present its second exhibition of works by Ethel Schwabacher (1903-1984). Ethel Schwabacher: The Early Sixties features a selection of paintings and works on paper, offering a focused exploration of Schwabacher’s artistic production during this pivotal period. Several years ago, Schwabacher joined the gallery’s roster of women artists whose ambitious, independent, and insightful art is essential to a complete historical understanding of the downtown New York art scene from the late 1940s to 1980s. The gallery’s first exhibition of Ethel Schwabacher’s work in 2023 featured paintings from the 1950s. This exhibition highlights Schwabacher’s works from the early 1960s, a transformative period for the artist in which she transitioned from gestural abstraction to more nuanced exploration of color. This marks a significant evolution in her artistic practice. Many of the works featured have not been on view since they were shown at her 1962 exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery, including the large-scale center piece to the show entitled, Longnook III (1960). Ethel Schwabacher: The Early Sixties focuses on Schwabacher’s unique brand of abstraction, which is characterized by sweeping broad brushstrokes, but enhanced with a newfound emphasis on bold, bright colors. Patricia L. Lewy, writes: “The works on view in the exhibition at the Berry Campbell Gallery, New York, in the spring of 2025 mark an exceptional moment in Schwabacher’s artistic formation, one as distinct from her earlier Abstract Expressionist paintings as they are from her later figurative narratives based on myth and epic poetry. Yet whether working with gesture, geometry, or narration, Schwabacher sought to express her exquisite sensitivity to color and color forms in a visual language that would convert psychic pain—the piercing anguish of personal loss, abandonment, and betrayal—into images of calm, stability, awe, and sheer joy.” As part of the resurgence of women artists, Ethel Schwabacher was one of the twelve artists included in the landmark traveling exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum in 2016. She was recently included in Action, Gesture, Paint, at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, that traveled to the Van Gogh Foundation in Arles, France, and the Kunsthalle, Bielefeld, Germany. Berry Campbell also presented a solo presentation of Ethel Schwabacher at Frieze Masters London in the Spotlight section curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Berry Campbell’s exhibition is accompanied by a 32-page fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Patricia L. Lewy, Ph.D., Director, Friedel Dzubas Estate Archives. Ethel Schwabacher: The Early Sixties opens with a reception on Thursday, March 13, 2025, 6 - 8 pm and continues through April 12, 2025. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment. For further information please call at 212.924.2178 or visit our website at www.berrycampbell.com. Press inquiries should be made to Laurel Megalli, Sutton Communications at laurel@suttoncomms.com or 212.202.3402.

Nanette Carter: Simply Semiotics is comprised of 24 recent collages that respond to the fraught political, social, and cultural issues of the 21st century. Drawing on influences ranging from African American quilt-making to jazz to Abstract Expressionism, Nanette Carter constructs an intricate and unique visual symphony using Mylar and oil. The exhibition will be accompanied by a 20-page, fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Jason Stopa.

Berry Campbell is pleased to present its first solo exhibition of paintings by contemporary artist, Beverly McIver (b. 1962), after announcing her representation last year. Beverly McIver: Entangled is comprised of 18 recent paintings created in the artist’s North Carolina studio with subjects ranging from reflective self-portraits that capture her emotional ebbs and flows of the past year, to portraits of her family, friends, and neighbors, including tributes to her mentors, Faith Ringgold and Philip Pearlstein.

Berry Campbell is proud to present the first New York solo exhibition of Bernice Bing (1936 – 1998), a foundational figure among the Bay Area Abstract Expressionists. While she was largely underrecognized during her lifetime, Bing’s importance has recently been acknowledged on the West Coast through several museum exhibitions. As the exclusive representatives of Bing’s estate, Berry Campbell mounts a survey of work created between 1961 and 1996, bringing together seminal large-scale paintings and works on paper, many which have not been seen for decades. The exhibition is accompanied by a 72-page fully illustrated catalogue featuring an essay by the renowned critic and poet John Yau and a remembrance by Flo Oy Wong, cofounder of the Asian American Women Artists Association.

Berry Campbell is pleased to present its fourth exhibition of paintings by contemporary Color Field painter, Jill Nathanson. Using a technique of pouring acrylic polymers, Nathanson’s paintings are characterized by coloristic inventiveness, as overlapping layers of translucency create new hues. Her paintings evoke what she calls “color desire,” as the fluidity of the forms engage us in seeking color resolutions across the pictorial field, while drawing the viewer to the different spaces these colors occupy as well as the ways in which they attract and repel each other. This exhibition will be comprised of 16 recent paintings by the artist, including her largest painting to date entitled, Psalm Harp.

Berry Campbell is pleased to present a retrospective of paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Dorothy Dehner (1901-1994). Dorothy Dehner: A Retrospective weaves together the story of Dehner’s seventy-year artistic career starting in the 1930s and culminating with several large-scale monumental sculptures from the 1980s and 1990s. This is the first exhibition of this scope and depth on Dehner since a retrospective at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, in 1995.