This exhibition marks the first major museum survey dedicated to the work and life of Jamaican-born artist Mavis Pusey (1928-2019), featuring over 60 artworks from her prolific 50-year career. An important figure in geometric abstraction, Pusey created rich abstract paintings and works on paper that reflect her wide-ranging engagement with fashion, printmaking, and the urban environment of cities in which she lived. Despite her international presence in the art world, Pusey’s work has largely remained overlooked. This comprehensive retrospective is the culmination of over a decade of research and collaboration and offers an expansive reexamination of Pusey’s impact on abstraction and beyond.
Much of her work addresses themes deeply connected to contemporary life, including her “Broken Construction” series (1960s-1990s), which explores the artist’s powerful use of destruction and renewal as metaphors for societal change. These works, along with others, are further contextualized through the inclusion of photographs, personal notes, and archival materials, offering invaluable insights into Pusey’s practice and the historical context surrounding her boundary-pushing work. Through this exhibition Mavis Pusey’s significant contributions to abstract art are explored, deepening our understanding of her lasting impact on contemporary artistic discourse.
Mavis Pusey, Spase, 1965, Oil on canvas, 42 x 52 ½ inches, Collection of Lorenzo Legarda Leviste and Fahad Mayet
Mavis Pusey: Mobile Images is curated by Hallie Ringle, Interim Director and Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator of the ICA Philadelphia, with Kiki Teshome, Curatorial Assistant, Studio Museum in Harlem. The exhibition is co-organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania and the Studio Museum in Harlem. The presentation of the artist’s archival materials is curated by Teshome.
Support
Major support for Mavis Pusey: Mobile Images has been provided by the Mellon Foundation. Support for Mavis Pusey: Mobile Images and the exhibition-related symposium has been provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Support for curatorial research has been provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This exhibition was made possible by the Neil Lane-Jacobson Family Foundation and Jemilah Afshar & Sascha S. Bauer. Additional support has been provided by Nancy & Leonard Amoroso, Danielle M. Anderman, Marjorie & Michael Levine, Meredith & Bryan Verona, Caroline & Daniel Werther, and The Study at University City.
