Berry Campbell presents "Lynne Drexler: A Painted Aria," homing in on the artist's practice during the 1970s.
Beginning in the latter half of 1969, American artist Lynne Drexler suffered a bought of color blindness that lasted six months. A devastating event that threatened to upend her practice, the experience proved an early catalyst for a marked shift in her approach to painting. By the mid-1970s, the artist attended the Metropolitan Opera up to three times a week, and the music itself became both the subject and inspiration of her work. Reflecting a deeply personal and emotional period in Drexler’s life, a solo show “Lynne Drexler: A Painted Aria” at Berry Campbell homes in on the work from this distinctive period of the artist’s life and career.
The exhibition builds on the exploration of Drexler’s oeuvre first begun in 2022 with “Lynne Drexler: The First Decade,” staged in collaboration with Mnuchin Gallery, that examined her work dating from 1959–1969. The decade following this, however, has historically gone underrecognized and underexplored, despite the significance of her 1970s work both in her own artistic trajectory and the development of 20th-century abstraction. Comprised of roughly 20 works—including six large-scale canvases—the distinct visual lexicon the artist developed in response to music is striking.
October 22, 2025
