soothe

soothe was a visual refuge in softness and abstraction, curated for Sugarlift by the artist Kristin Texeira. Fresh from a 2019 residency at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Texeira had been thinking about the different ways art meets tumultuous times, and about Anni Albers, who found comfort and a sense of control in her abstractions after leaving Nazi Germany. Twenty-four artists responded with calm shape, palette and line.

The show opened online on July 9, 2020, with a live event that paired a guided art meditation, led by Jessica Angima, with conversations with the artists. Alongside it, Sugarlift published a zine in which the artists shared their own havens and handwritten thoughts on the theme, introduced by Shannon May Powell's essay, the soothe manifesto.

In her curator statement, Texeira acknowledged that most of the show's artists were white, and committed future shows to including more Black artists and other artists of color, including Indigenous artists. She asked visitors to take the work as it was first intended: "a refuge of minimalism and abstraction, a respite, a place to rest our eyes and recharge in order to continue fighting the fight." As the second exhibition of Sugarlift's #allforartists campaign, soothe sent 100% of each sale to the artists, and many of them chose to donate part of their proceeds to organizations supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.