For the 2018 edition of Frieze New York, Garth Greenan Gallery presents a group exhibition of seven signature works by gallery artists Ralph Humphrey, Al Loving, Howardena Pindell, Norbert Prangenberg, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Richard Van Buren—Thick Paint: 1957–2004. Throughout their careers, many of the artists included in this proposal exhibited together widely, first at Chicago’s Renaissance Society—and later at Just Above Midtown and Lerner-Heller Gallery. Most notably, however, their paintings appeared in countless historic group exhibitions, many of which problematized the characterization of their work as “process” or “ABC art.”

Working in reaction to the thin, impersonal surfaces of minimalism, pop art, and color-field painting, artists included in this presentation returned to familiar modes of “painterly” handling of pigments, while opening new paths to emotional and political expression. While many of the artists in Thick Paint use thick painting, they are not linked by any common style. Materiality has been a hallmark throughout art history, in which plastic pigment evokes imagery without sacrificing its own sensuous appeal. Although not always explicit, the artists in our presentation are all primarily abstractionists. Paint is the main message.

Frieze is the first time many of the works in Thick Paint have been exhibited at an art fair. Al Loving (Baltimore Museum of Art), Howardena Pindell (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago), Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Loveland Museum, Colorado), and Richard Van Buren (South Dakota Art Museum, South Dakota State University, Brookings) all have major solo exhibitions touring the United States this year.

Garth Greenan Gallery is pleased to represent Howardena Pindell, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Richard Van Buren and the Estates of Ralph Humphrey, Al Loving and Norbert Prangenberg.