ACA Galleries

ACA Galleries is delighted to present Augustus Francis: Materia Prima, his debut solo exhibition in New York City. Featuring two new bodies of work that embrace the contradictions and dualities inherent to his practice. The Oltremarino series of paintings rooted in blues, created primarily in the English countryside, are characterized by jewel-like tones, flowing compositions with earthy striations and airy expanses of color. Alternately the New York series incorporate vibrant reds and fluorescent pigments that recurs in flows, drips, and wax accretions evoke the metropolitan energy and neon billboards of his new urban environment. The exhibition title, Materia Prima, refers to a central tenet of alchemy. Materia prima is a universal starting point, the essential chaotic matter from which all else is formed. For Francis, alchemy is a useful analog for his interest in a universal, primal source of creativity and subject matter. Rather than pursuing an elixir of life, Francis sees painting as being capable of representing the splendor of the unknowable and the sublime. To that end, abstraction, perhaps the original and most timeless of visual art forms, is an approach better suited to the immortal than the symbolic lexicon of the alchemist. "I’ve come to realize that these opposing states of matter— fluidity of paint, solidity of wax, and powdered pigment— are opposing poles within my abstract language, creating a push and pull." - Augustus Francis Fittingly, Francis has of late begun to introduce matter into his work. Until recently, the uniform treatment of the surface with a liquid exploration of gravity, movement, and rhythm has been the hallmark of Francis’s personal approach to abstraction. By physically manipulating his canvases to direct pours of paint, Francis contradicts a singular orientation. Smooth waves of color against monochrome grounds are pierced by gestural marks – drips, splatters, throws – that disrupt the resolution of these works into lavish aerials or celestial bodies, maintaining a reverence for the flatness of the picture plane. This approach, what Francis identifies as “flow painting,” remains foundational to his new work. Atop a base of vibrant fluid color he builds a repertoire of material and gestures that are in many ways the antithesis of flow. Thick, impasto marks are applied to the surface with a palette knife and dry powdered pigments are projected onto the canvas and affixed with varnish, disrupting the silky surface of his pours with an earthen grain. Reflective materials, such as glitter and micro-pearls, contrast the heavy impasto wax with an effervescence that scatters light and mass alike. Applying waxes between layers of wet paint, by contrast, adds more density to the work. The overall effect is to introduce a new tactility that encourages a bodily experience more directly than pure gesture and flow ever could. (Excepts of exhibition text by art historian, Dr. Christopher T. Green, Ph.D.) Augustus Francis (b. 1986, Los Angeles, California) is an abstract painter whose practice centers on the sensory impact of color. Primarily living and working on an estate in Yorkshire, UK, Francis explores the uniform treatment of surfaces in his paintings, creating works where the canvas becomes an extension of the space beyond it. His process involves a deep understanding of how colors interact—each hue responding to the next—to evoke a visceral experience. The son of the Abstract-Expressionist Sam Francis and the English artist Margaret Francis, Augustus holds a BA in Fine Art from Leeds Metropolitan University (2006–2009) and completed an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice (2011). In addition to his abstract painting Francis’ multidisciplinary approach includes glass sculptures and porcelain works. Francis has exhibited internationally including the American Contemporary Art Gallery (Germany), Fernet Branca Museum (France), Bergamot Station Arts Center (Santa Monica), and Big Sight Exhibition Centre (Tokyo). Francis currently maintains studios in Yorkshire, UK, as well as Pawling, New York.

ACA Galleries is delighted to present a solo exhibition of Richard Mayhew’s transcendent landscapes. Richard Mayhew: A Life in Art will provide a retrospective-style survey of his signature oil paintings and watercolors, in celebration of the life and work of the artist, who recently passed away at the age of 100. ACA Galleries represented Richard Mayhew for over thirty years. In 2020, the gallery organized a major exhibition of paintings and watercolors which was accompanied by the first and only comprehensive monograph of the artist’s work, Transcendence (2020, Chronicle Books, San Francisco) with an essay by Andrew Walker, director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. A Life in Art will feature key works—many from private collections and rarely exhibited together—covering the most defining decades of Mayhew’s practice. Widely recognized as one of America’s most important contemporary landscape painters, Mayhew’s luminous, emotionally-charged abstract paintings—which he referred to as ‘mindscapes’—have been the subject of more than forty solo exhibitions over the last fifty years. For Mayhew, the essence of reality was more important than its facts. His paintings were not mere representations of landscapes but transcendent reflections of the emotional and spiritual connections he felt towards the natural world. Richard Mayhew was born 1924 in Amityville, New York to parents of African-American and Native American ancestry. He began drawing and painting at an early age, a passion sparked by watching the artists who summered on Long Island’s south shore paint its scenic shorelines. During his formative years, his maternal grandmother imparted knowledge regarding their Native American ancestry and folklore, which instilled in him a lifelong reverence for nature. In 1945, Mayhew moved to New York City and attended the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s School and Art Students League, where he studied with Reuben Tam, Edwin Dickinson, Hans Hofmann and Max Beckmann. His first solo exhibition was at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1955. In 1958, Mayhew was awarded the John Hay Whitney Foundation Grant which enabled him to travel to Europe in 1959 to continue his studies. When he returned to New York in 1963 following his travels, he joined Spiral, an organization of African-American artists and intellectuals committed to promoting civil rights in the art world formed by Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, Norman Lewis, Felrath Hines and Hale Woodruff, to discuss the role of African American artists in the political and cultural landscape of America. Last Fall, ACA Galleries was pleased to present Beyond the Spiral, an exhibition featuring Mayhew’s work alongside other artists from the legendary Spiral Group. Mayhew was the last surviving member of the group at the time of his passing. Mayhew’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; Art Institute of Chicago; IL; National Museum of American Art, DC; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; and the De Young Museum; CA. He was a member of the National Academy of Design and was also widely recognized for his work as an educator with teaching positions at the Art Students League, Hunter College, and Pennsylvania State University, among others. ACA Galleries represented Richard Mayhew from 1996-2024.

ACA Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition investigating the arc of American Abstraction from the 1930s to the 1980s. Opening November 21, this exhibition features a selection of paintings and works on paper by prominent artists associated with the New York School of Abstract Expressionists and the American Abstract Artists. Founded in 1936, the American Abstract Artists (AAA) was a predecessor to Abstract Expressionism and contributed to the broader development and acceptance of abstract art in the United States. American Abstraction will feature rarely exhibited and lesser-known works by artists including Norman Bluhm, Ilya Bolotowsky, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Balcomb Greene, Grace Hartigan, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Norman Lewis, Jackson Pollock, Jean Paul Riopelle, Rolph Scarlett, Jon Schueler, and Theodoros Stamos. The gallery’s pioneering interest in progressive American art was established early on in exhibitions featuring—often for the very first time—the work of Rockwell Kent, Alice Neel, Barnett Newman, Irene Rice Pereira, David Smith, and Charles White, among many others. In 1935, ACA hosted the inaugural meetings of the American Artists’ Congress (AAC), the influential precursor to the Federal Art Project (FAP) and Works Project Administration (WPA), federal programs that aided American artists and funded public art projects throughout the depression. In the 1960s, ACA Galleries established its first foreign branch in Rome, and the ACA Heritage Gallery in Los Angeles and New York City, signaling a vital foray into 19th and early 20th century American and European art.

New York, NY…ACA Galleries is pleased to present We The People, an exhibition featuring mixed media, fiber, and stained glass works by multimedia Afro-Caribbean American portrait artist Kandy G Lopez and trailblazing visual artist Aminah Robinson. This intergenerational exhibition will feature a kaleidoscopic selection of over twenty works exploring the power and potential of honoring community through artistic representation.

Summer in the City is a multimedia exhibition featuring works spanning over a century by an intergenerational collection of artists who have depicted New York City over the years. From Saul Chase’s serigraphs of subway architecture to Edmund Yaghjian’s lyrical oil paintings of city views, the group exhibition captures the wide range of daily urban rhythms and architectural landmarks central to the New York City experience. The diverse range of artistic mediums and approaches presented in the show–etchings, paintings, serigraphs, pastel works, and more–demonstrates the rich artistic legacy of the urban center and its dynamic role in both shaping and being shaped by public imagination and popular culture over the decades.

ACA Galleries is thrilled to present “Chelsea Hotel Portraits” the first public presentation of photographer Tony Notarberardino’s iconic black and white portraits of the extraordinary individuals drawn to The Chelsea Hotel, shot over the course of the past 25 years. Raised in Melbourne by Italian emigrant parents, Notarberardino arrived at The Chelsea Hotel in 1994, and never left. A New York City landmark, built in 1884 this Victorian Gothic building on West 23rd Street was one of the few remaining bohemian refuges in a fast and ever-changing city, and played host to legendary artistic collaborations, boundary-breaking performances, and so much more. The unique characters that both lived in and frequented the hotel inspired Notarberardino to begin capturing portraits. The photographer recounts the moment the series came to life: “At 4am one night in September 1997, I was inside the Chelsea Hotel elevator returning home when suddenly a hand adorned with long, painted fingernails blocked it from closing. In walked an aged drag queen carrying more shopping bags than she could manage while holding the hand of a six-year-old boy. After four years of letting these moments pass by, I introduced myself and asked if I could photograph her. Without hesitation, she agreed.” Notarberardino’s portrait series captures the atmosphere of authenticity by documenting the remarkably rich visual cast of characters that pass through the hotel's doors daily. He photographs all portraits with a large format 8X10 black and white film on his vintage 1960s Toyo-View 810GII in the hallway of his apartment, the former residence of Australian artist Vali Myers. From counter cultural icons to the lesser known, the series stands as a definitive document of the people who made the landmark so unique, leaving audiences with a last glimpse of the subterranean romance of The Chelsea Hotel. Notarberardino has documented over 1500 portraits, including: Arthur. C. Clarke, Dee Dee Ramone, Sam Shepard, Grace Jones, Elias Jose Reranos, Abel Ferrara, Storme Delarverie, Victor Bockris, Rose Wood, Stephen Baldwin, Debbie Harry, Frank Roth, Mary Ellen Mark, Arnold Weinstein, Ron Jeremy, Amanda Lepore, Shalom Harlow, Peter Sarsgaard, Susan Bartsch, Selinie Luna, Ira Cohen, Lola Schnabel, Dirty Martini, Maria Beatty, Bruce Levingston, and Stanley Bard.

ACA Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition of Richard Hambleton’s work that will offer a new recontextualization of his famed street art practice. Opening on January 27, the show will reframe the artist’s legacy by locating his work within the context of the broader Abstract Expressionist movement that inspired him. This exhibition will include paintings and works on paper by Richard Hambleton, alongside works by leading figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement, including Franz Kline, Theodoros Stamos and Ad Reinhardt.