- Dec 18, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 13
Presented in conversation with Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s, this exhibition invites you to experience four contemporary artists continuing the tradition of abstraction: Heather Hutchison, Joseph Marioni, Jane Swavely, and John Zurier.
Category: Abstraction, Color, Contemporary
Museum visitors enjoy works on view in Painting in Color.
Light, scale, and space:
Accompanying Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s, the exhibition Painting in Color features four contemporary artists whose work continues the tradition of abstraction into the 21st century. Heather Hutchison (b. 1964), Joseph Marioni (1943–2024), Jane Swavely (b. 1959), and John Zurier (b. 1956) explore color, light, scale, and space in artworks that foreground visual perception and invite quiet reflection.
Like Olitski, who envisioned color suspended in the air like a fine mist, these artists explore painterly techniques to express visual and tactile experiences drawn from the natural world. Employing innovative approaches to painting, their works heighten sensory awareness, sharpen how we see, and invite new ways of looking. Together, the artists in Painting in Color advance the legacy of Jules Olitski’s spray paintings and affirm the lasting energy of color and abstraction.
Read this recent profile in The American Scholar about Jane Swavely and her featured work in Painting in Color.
This exhibition is generously supported by Dr. Emily Leff, with additional support by The Wolf Kahn Foundation, and the Currier’s Susan E. Strickler Exhibition Fund.
Photos by Morgan Karanasios
The organizers:
This exhibition is curated by art historian Alex Grimley, PhD, in collaboration with Bruce McColl, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Currier Museum of Art, in conjunction with the exhibition Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s.
Upcoming events:
Spray Day
Sunday, April 19
2PM
Need a day immersed in creativity and artistic conversation? Join us for an enlivening Art Talk with contemporary artists Heather Hutchison and Jane Swavely, followed by a music performance of John Luther Adam’s "Red Arc/Blue Veil."
Related exhibitions:
Rediscover the iconic Sprays of this modern master with deep roots in New Hampshire.
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