Mavis Pusey: Cellular Pictures marks the primary main museum survey to discover the Jamaica-born artist and educator’s prolific 50-year profession. Opening at ICA Philadelphia on July 12, the place it should stay on view by December 7, the present is co-organized with the Studio Museum in Harlem, the place it should journey within the spring of 2027. This complete retrospective provides an expansive reexamination of Pusey’s influence on summary artwork and past.
An vital determine in geometric abstraction, Mavis Pusey (1928–2019) created wealthy work and works on paper that mirror her wide-ranging engagement with style, printmaking, and the city setting of the cities during which she lived. But regardless of her worldwide presence within the artwork world, her work has largely remained missed. Cellular Pictures is the fruits of over a decade of analysis and collaboration, providing new insights into the artist’s life and work.
Mavis Pusey, “Personante” (1990), oil on canvas, 53 ½ × 75 inches (courtesy the Neil Lane-Jacobson Household Basis)
A lot of her artwork addresses themes deeply linked to modern life, together with her Damaged Development collection (Nineteen Sixties-Nineteen Nineties), which explores her highly effective use of destruction and renewal as metaphors for societal change. These works, together with others, are additional contextualized by the inclusion of images, private notes, and archival supplies that present invaluable insights into her observe and the historic context surrounding her boundary-pushing work. This exhibition dives into Pusey’s important contributions to summary artwork, deepening our understanding of her lasting influence on modern inventive discourse.
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Mavis Pusey, “Within Manhattan” (1977), oil on canvas, 73 × 96 inches (courtesy the Neil Lane-Jacobson Household Basis)
Mavis Pusey, “Spase” (1967), oil on burlap canvas, 42 x 52 1/2 inches (assortment of Lorenzo Legarda Leviste and Fahad Mayet)
Mavis Pusey, “Paris, Mai–Juin” (1968), shade lithograph, 33 × 24 ½ inches, full margins (courtesy the Neil Lane-Jacobson Household Basis)
