Group Exhibition: Abstract Legacy II: Against All Odds

Exhibiting Artists: Lina Binkele, Seymour Boardman, Ernest Briggs, Nicolas Carone, Pérez Celis, Herman Cherry, Nassos Daphnis, Amaranth Ehrenhalt, Agustín Fernández, Mark Gibian, Stanley William Hayter, Buffie Johnson, Ibram Lassaw, Michael Loew, Jeanne Miles, Irving Petlin, Jeanne Reynal, Richards Ruben, Jon Schueler, Thomas Sills, Nancy Steinson, Antoni Tàpies, Taro Yamamoto, and Wilfrid Zogbaum.

Anita Shapolsky Gallery, established in the early 1980s in SoHo, began as a new gallery determined to discover and support strong and distinctive artists. At a time when Minimalism and Pop Art dominated the art world, Anita Shapolsky chose to focus on abstract art. Many of the artists the gallery began exhibiting had, over the years, shown at the Martha Jackson Gallery, Betty Parsons Gallery, and many important American and international institutions.

From its inception, the gallery has supported and championed artists who, “Against All Odds,” remained committed to abstraction and to their individual artistic visions through periods of profound artistic, social, and cultural change. Although these artists represent different generations, backgrounds, and approaches, they share a dedication to experimentation, independence, and a deeply personal approach to their work. While some achieved significant recognition during their lifetimes, the contributions of others were often overlooked or only fully recognized later.

Deeply committed to the artists she represents, Anita Shapolsky has, over her long career as a gallerist, fostered strong personal and professional relationships with a diverse and distinguished group of artists, including women Abstract Expressionists, Latin American artists, and Black artists. The gallery continues to exhibit and support their work even as prevailing tastes and movements in the art world change. For more than four decades, each carefully curated exhibition has explored the evolving role of Abstract Expressionism, offering viewers both historical perspective and a renewed appreciation of its enduring vitality.

The work of each artist reveals abstraction not as a single movement, but as an enduring language, continually reinvented through color, material, form, dimension, and personal experience. Many of these artists played an active role in the development of abstraction in New York in the 1950s, leaving a lasting influence on future generations. Today, their work is included in major public and private collections, both nationally and internationally. Over the years, the gallery has received critical recognition from publications including Art in America, ARTnews, The New York Times, and others.

An important sister institution, the Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation, originally founded as the Josiah White Foundation, has housed one of Pennsylvania’s historically significant collections of Abstract Expressionism since 1985. Located within the First Presbyterian Church of Mauch Chunk in the town now known as Jim Thorpe, the foundation is open annually from Memorial Day through Labor Day and regularly hosts exhibitions and cultural events. Together, the gallery and the foundation serve as steadfast advocates for abstract art, bringing a diverse range of important artists to the public.

At a time when the art world is increasingly shaped by large corporate galleries and a highly speculative, multimillion-dollar market, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, situated in the warm and intimate setting of an Upper East Side brownstone, and the Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation remain rare and vital presences. “Against All Odds,” they preserve the spirit of an earlier art world—one that was more personal and accessible, where collectors, teachers, professionals, and passionate art connoisseurs could engage directly with artists and their work.