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The more abstract is form, the more clear and direct is its appeal.”
— Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, 1912 Madron Gallery presents Conversations in Abstraction, a group exhibition that brings together contemporary and historical artists whose abstract paintings create a visual communication that transcends the barriers of time, geography, and theory. At its core, abstraction invites the viewer to peel back the layers of color, line, shape, and texture, discovering deeper meaning and connection—compositions designed to spark dialogue. The 24 paintings on display serve as markers that span more than a century of artistic creation. Over the past five years, Madron has been collecting artworks produced during the early exploration of abstraction in America. By exhibiting historical and contemporary artworks alongside each other, we not only examine how abstraction has developed over time but also explore how artworks created decades apart remain relevant to one another. Michelle Bolinger (b. 1981) is an artist, living and working in Chicago, IL. Her paintings use color and surface to render elusive, abstract environments. Bolinger received her MFA from the University of Washington and has exhibited at Paris London Hong Kong, Chicago; Roman Susan Gallery, Chicago; Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL; Baby Blue Gallery, Chicago; Lloyd Dobler Gallery, Chicago; Roots and Culture, Chicago; and Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle, WA. Bolinger is a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been awarded grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Artists Assistance Program. David Burliuk (1882 - 1967) was a central figure in the history of the Russian avant-garde movement as an accomplished poet, art critic, curator, and artist. Burliuk studied at the Kazan School of Fine Arts in 1898, and later at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His early works were fauve-like, “violent in color and heavy with paint,” and were exhibited with the Blue Riders in Munich, Germany. Burliuk immigrated to the US after War World I in 1922. Today his work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of Art. Marisol Cervantes (b. 1996) is an Illinois based artist. Cervantes received her MFA (2022) in painting from Northern Illinois University. In her work, Cervantes explores human interactions through large scale abstract paintings, often exploring personal narratives using vibrant colors and unique shapes to revive memories and conversations that include grief, progression, and change. Cervantes is currently an art instructor at Northern Illinois University and McHenry County College. Gerald Coarding (1911-1986) began his career in Chicago, studying at the Art Institute and working as a commercial artist. During World War II he was deployed as an Army Engineer to India and China, and would later note that these experiences had a profound influence on his style as he began to pursue painting more “seriously” after the war. Under the GI Bill, Coarding studied with key modernists like Hans Hofmann in New York and Fernand Léger in Paris. His works were selected for major shows at both the Art Institute of Chicago (1947) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (1955), and the artist was represented by the Janet Fleisher Gallery in Philadelphia. Joseph Friebert (1908-2002) received a bachelor's degree in art education at Milwaukee State Teachers College, later named the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UW-M), and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 1946 through 1974, Friebert served on the faculty of the art department at UW-M. During his lifetime his work was exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Corcoran Art Gallery, D.C., The Art Institute of Chicago, The Walker Art Center, and The Venice Biennale. After his death, the Joseph and Betsy Ritz Friebert Family Art Partnership collaborated with the Kohler Foundation, restoring and distributing approximately 350 paintings and drawings for prosperity. Today his artwork can be found in over 44 museums across the country, as well as private collections nationally and abroad. John D. Graham (1881/86/88-1961) was a figure of immense influence in the early years of American modernism, with his work alternating between abstraction and realism. Graham is credited as a major influence in the formation of Abstract Expressionism with his book, "System and Dialectics of Art" (1937). Born in Kiev on January 8, 1881 (or 1886 or 1888) with the name of Ivan Gratianovich Dombrovski, Graham hid himself behind a curtain of fact and myth after arriving in New York around 1920. His art can be seen in several public collections at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh and The Phillips Collection of Washington, D.C. Mary Celeste Griffin (b.1986) Born in Flagstaff, AZ, Griffin lives and works in Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include Stirring Memories with Desire (2024) at 121 Art Space, Taipei City, Taiwan, and Strange Vistas (2023) at Dreamsong Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. Select group exhibitions include the DeVos Art Museum, Marquette, MI; Everybody Gallery, Tucson, AZ; HAIR+NAILS Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; Brook Stevens Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, IL; Jargon Projects, Chicago, IL; Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL; and Pintô International, New York, NY. Griffin has received awards from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (2023) and participated in the Nido: Living in the Play artist residency and exhibition in Monte Castello di Vibio, Umbria, Italy (2022). Griffin is currently a lecturer in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she also earned her MFA in 2021. Stacie Maya Johnson (b. 1977) has an exhibition record that spans 15 years with 10 solo exhibitions and more than 60 group exhibitions. Johnson was a founding member of the artist-run gallery Regina Rex from 2010-2014. Johnson’s paintings were recently exhibited at Supermoon Art Space in Queens, NYC and the Dodd Galleries at the Univerity of Georgia in Athens. Johnson has a BA from the University of Iowa, an MFA from the University of Illinois Chicago and a MS in Urban Policy from Hunter College. She works out of New York City and Fort Montgomery, NY. William S. Schwartz (1896-1977) was a painter, lithographer, sculptor, and opera singer, best known for his Symphonic Forms, a series of abstract paintings that evoke the experience of listening to music and which earned him the moniker “a musician in color.” Schwartz studied at the Vilna Art School in Russia from 1908 to 1912. At the age of sixteen Schwartz immigrated to America and three years later entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he was awarded a scholarship. Today, Schwartz’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Joslyn Art Museum, Dallas Public Museum and Illinois State Museum. Charles Green Shaw (1892-1974) was a poet, novelist, journalist, children’s book author and painter. A 1914 graduate of Yale University, Shaw did not pursue painting till his mid-thirties, first taking classes at the Art Students League with Thomas Hart Benton, and then private lessons from George Luks. A founding member of the American Abstract Artists, today his work can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Guggenheim Museum, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Bruce Thorn is a Chicago based artist and critic. Thorn earned a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a M.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Thorn works primarily with oil paint, which offers the accuracy, transparency and color luminescence that are so important to him. In 2016 he took up an active interest in writing essays and reviews about art, which have been published in Neoteric Art and the New Art Examiner from 2016-2019. Thorn is a 1994 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner award, his work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Ukrainian Institute of Art, Chicago, the Roger Brown Study Collection, Chicago, and the Flaten Art Museum in Northfield, Minnesota. Madron is home to Madron Gallery, Madron Press, and the Skolnik family’s private art collection. The Skolnik family, the founders of Madron, is committed to supporting contemporary and Jewish artists, as well as acting as stewards of nineteenth and twentieth-century American art. Through scholarship-informed programming and en suite exhibitions, Madron has carved out a unique place in Chicago’s artistic landscape, sparking dialogue about the ongoing significance of nineteenth and twentieth-century art in today’s world.
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