At Frieze Masters 2026, New York gallery Berry Campbell shines a spotlight on the women artists who helped shape Abstract Expressionism and the post-war New York art scene through Women of the 8th Street Club. The presentation revisits the influential artists associated with “The Club”, the gathering place for a generation of painters and sculptors who transformed the language of modern art.
The exhibition foregrounds Elaine de Kooning, Perle Fine and Mercedes Matter, the only three women admitted as voting members, alongside other significant participants, including Mary Abbott, Alice Baber, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, Ethel Schwabacher and Yvonne Thomas.
The presentation reflects Berry Campbell co-founders Christine Berry and Martha Campbell’s longstanding commitment to reassessing the contributions of twentieth-century women artists and securing their rightful place in the art-historical canon. Despite their influence on the development of post-war abstraction, many of these artists have historically received less recognition than their male contemporaries.
Highlights include Mercedes Matter’s Untitled (c. 1948), an early abstraction exploring gesture, structure and space; Elaine de Kooning’s Robert Mallary (1964), a vibrant portrait demonstrating her expressive approach to figuration; and Alice Baber’s The Flag of the Jaguar Turns to the Mountain (1981), a luminous exploration of colour and light.
The presentation also precedes a landmark solo exhibition dedicated to Elaine de Kooning at Berry Campbell, opening on 29 October and marking the artist’s first solo show at the gallery in a decade.
— Lee Sharrock, FAD Magazine
