Sawdust-encrusted canvases, clothes, and blankets strung across a gallery appearing like fields of color, geometric stacks of bunk beds aglow in the pink light of colorful glass panels. The muscular works featured in In the Abstract merged the formal gestures and historical associations of abstract painting with recognizable imagery and everyday objects to point to social and political realities of today. Form, color, and gesture acted as metaphors for how we process the world around us and convey emotional, philosophical, and spiritual states. Exhibition artists included Doug Ashford, Aidas Bareikis, Sarah Braman, Tomashi Jackson, Rosy Keyser, Eric N. Mack, Rose Marcus, Rodney McMillian, Matt Saunders, Letha Wilson, and Brenna Youngblood.

Principal exhibition support was provided by Greg and Anne Avis. Major exhibition support was provided by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Sarah Braman, In Bed (how do we sleep when the planet is melting?), 2016
Steel bunk beds, mattress, glass, aluminum frame, storm door, acrylic sticker, hand dyed bed sheets, acrylic and enamel paint
103 1/2 × 108 × 98 in. (262.9 × 274.3 × 248.9 cm)
© Sarah Braman; Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NY