New Language: Contemporary Abstraction is a national survey of abstract art. This group exhibition is juried by artist and educator Daniela Rivera. In New Language: Contemporary Abstraction, the featured artists consider abstract expressionism as a springboard for a contemporary approach to translating the world into a non-objective language or one that is removed from representation. 

Many of the artists incorporate digital processes and the influence of technology as a point of departure to translate observations and perceptual illusions. In the video Movement Experiments, Yukyung Chung explores how physical movements can be interpreted and translated in digital environments. Others—like Tielin Ding, who uses his applications of mapping and walking to reflect on invisible systems within urban and natural spaces—and Julia McGehean, who illustrates the circular way she tracks linear text by making abstractions from a moving tennis player—also work with performative actions. Some artists, such as Arden Cone, create abstract art with found objects; in The Mileage, Cone presents a tractor tire tube from her family’s farm as a drawing substrate to interpret the socio-political culture of the American South. 

In New Language: Contemporary Abstraction, the featured artists use the freedom of abstraction to navigate through and reflect on contemporary topics. Utilizing a variety of mediums—such as painting, photography, video, sculpture, drawing, fiber, mixed media, printmaking, and collage—the artists with work on view provide unique perspectives on a range of themes, including the impact of technology, social-political culture, the human experience, history, climate change, and more.

Featured artists

Patrick Brennan, Michelle Carter, Yukyung Chung, Thomas Clarkson, Arden Cone, Tielin Ding, Dean Ebben, Gavin Fahey, Adam Farcus, Colleen Fitzgerald, Gregory Gómez, Lynette Haggard, Katie Lane, Catherine LeComte, Julia McGehean, Dara Morgenstern, Laura Nugent, Gavin Robb, Martha Schnee, Calder Sell, Anvi Stevens, Susan Still Scott, Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, Elizabeth Ulanova, Audrey Wang, Yolanda Yang

About the juror

Born in Santiago, Chile, Daniela Rivera received her BFA from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 1996 and her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, Boston in 2006. She is currently Professor of Studio Art at Wellesley College. She has exhibited widely in Latin American cities including Santiago, Chile, as well as in the United States. She has been awarded residencies at Loghaven, Headland Center for the Arts, Surf Point, Proyecto ACE in Buenos Aires, Vermont Studio Arts Center, and the Skowhegan School of Paintings and Sculpture. And she has been the recipient of notable fellowships and grants including from The Chiaro Award, The Rappaport Prize, Now + There, the Massachusetts Cultural Council Award, VSC, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, The FONDART in Chile, and the Saint Botolph Club foundation Distinguish Artist Award. Recent or upcoming exhibitions include: Políticas del Espacio, Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (October 2021), Stop, LaMontagne Gallery (2020), Labored Landscapes; Where The Sky Touches the Earth, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fragmentos para una Historia del Olvido/ Fragments for a History of Displacement, The Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA (2018–2019); En Busca de los Andes, solo exhibition with Proyecto ACE, Buenos Aires, Argentina (June 2019); Sobremesa (Karaoke Politics), a public art project developed as her Now + There Accelerator Fellowship, Boston MA (summer/fall 2019), and The Andes Inverted, solo show at the MFA, Boston 2017-18.