Beyond Description

Beyond Description brought together 18 painters in dialogue with the visible world, each seeking to translate felt perception into paint. Curated by the painters Eric Elliott and Jordan Wolfson, it was shown in two cities at once, at Sugarlift in New York and at Figure Ground Art Gallery in Seattle, and both galleries opened their parts of the exhibition on August 4, 2022.

For these artists, meaning lives in the form itself, generated in the relationships between the artist, the motif and the painting. The work ranged from still lifes and interiors to landscapes and the figure, and each painter looks through a particular lens. What they share is the question at the center of the show: how colored mud can be brought to life, and what that says about the world we live in and about being human.

The painters included Stanley Lewis, Ann Gale, Ying Li, Wilbur Niewald, Catherine Kehoe and Zoey Frank, alongside the two curators. Sugarlift hosted the New York opening on Thursday, August 4, and the show ran at High Line Nine through September 2. In Seattle, Figure Ground kept its part of the exhibition on view through September 30.