Beauty Reigns

Beauty Reigns features the work of 13 emerging and mid-career abstract painters, working in studios across the United States. The exhibition celebrates the exoticism, exuberance and optimism found in the artists’ work. Among the characteristics these artists share are high-key color, layered surface imagery, use of overall and repeated patterns, stylized motifs and a tension between melancholy and the sublime.

Beauty Reigns, which is organized by Rene Paul Barilleaux for the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, features works by artists both national and international perspectives. With the exception of Beatriz Milhazes, who lives in Brazil, the artists—who span two generations—work in communities across the United States. They span two generations and several include elements of visual vocabularies they were introduced to in other countries in their distinctive canvases.

Included in the exhibition are works by artists Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A), Kamrooz Aram, Charles Burwell, Annette Davidek, Fausto Fernandez, Nancy Lorenz, Ryan McGinness, Beatriz Milhazes, Jiha Moon, Paul Henry Ramirez, Rex Ray, Rosalyn Schwartz and Susan Chrysler White.

Beauty Reigns: A Baroque Sensibility in Recent Painting is organized by the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio Texas. The Semmes Foundation, Inc. is generously providing lead sponsorship. Major supporters are Mary Beth and Jack Williamson (a gift of the James Family Charitable Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation), the Flora Crichton Visiting Artist Fund, the Ewing Halsell Foundation Endowment for Visiting Artists, the Director’s Circle and the Host Committee.

Lead sponsorship for the presentation of Beauty Reigns in Akron is provided by the Lehner Family Foundation with additional funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.