Alex Katz and Peter Freeman, Inc. are pleased to present Downtown Painting, a collaborative summer group exhibition echoing the spirit of the downtown art scene in New York in the 1950s and 1960s.
David Adamo, Etel Adnan, Brian Belott, Ellen Berkenblit, Katherine Bernhardt, Judith Bernstein, Forrest Bess, Ronald Bladen, Richard Bosman, Katherine Bradford, Zach Bruder, Ernst Caramelle, Francesco Clemente, Gaby Collins-Fernandez, Enzo Cucchi, Verne Dawson, Federico de Francesco, Jan de Vliegher, Martha Diamond, Steve DiBenedetto, Tyler Dobson, Lois Dodd, Rackstraw Downes, Sally Egbert, Rafael Ferrer, Cy Gavin, Juan Eduardo Gomez, Red Grooms, Marsden Hartley, Al Held, Carmen Herrera, Charline von Heyl, David Humphrey, Callum Innes, Yvonne Jacquette, Merlin James, Bill Jensen, Chantal Joffe, Jesse Kase, Misaki Kawai, Rosy Keyser, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Kline, Udomsak Krisanamis, Justen Ladda, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Chris Martin, Andrew Masullo, Emma McMillan, Robert Moskowitz, Matt Mullican, Jeanette Mundt, Catherine Murphy, Nabil Nahas, Lauren Nickou, Alejandro Ospina, Virginia Overton, Philip Pearlstein, Nathlie Provosty, Tyson Reeder, David Rhodes, Kenny Rivero, David Salle, Allison Schulnik, Dana Schutz, Trevor Shimizu, Kim Sloane, Travess Smalley, Eduardo Terrazas, Bob Thompson, Mark Wethli, Wendy White, Franklin Williams, Sue Williams, Nick Wilson, Nicole Wittenberg, James Wolanin
Downtown Painting includes 78 artists who are each exhibiting a painting of their choice. These invited artists, as Katz explains, echo ideas conceived in the 1950s and 1960s regarding distinctions between “uptown” and “downtown.” Whereas uptown art is uncontroversial, unproblematic, and more easily commodified, downtown art is intuitive, self-indulgent, and not made to fit comfortably into a home or institution. By working in non-conformist ways, these artists have maintained their initial desires to be free.
Katz was a vital presence in the downtown scene of the 1960s, and exhibited work at Tanager Gallery, a co-op space that began its life in a barber shop in 1952. Around this time, other experimental, artist-run galleries also moved away from midtown and all that it represented. Like these galleries, Katz defied categorization and continues to do so today. The aim of Downtown Painting is to celebrate the current moment in painting in all its variations, showing work by artists as widely divergent as Silvia Plimack Mangold and Dana Schutz. The exhibition also includes several historic examples by artists such as Marsden Hartley and Al Held.