Blankness as a knowing subject.

The show honors the artistic life’s work of the artist, who passed away this year at the age of 89. It is the first presentation of Michael Venezia’s work since his death—and a remembrance and appreciation of an extraordinary person whose work shines far beyond his lifetime. Michael Venezia (born in Brooklyn 1935 – † 2025) was an important representative of abstract painting in the USA. His artistic environment was shaped by artists such as Dan Flavin, Robert Ryman, and Sol LeWitt, with whom he enjoyed lifelong friendships. While many of his colleagues continued to develop primarily sculptural work, Venezia remained committed to painting and developed his own reduced visual language, his own technique, and his own new combination systems. He worked on reducing gesture in painting, moving away from brushstrokes and contact with the canvas. Venezia recognized a material quality in paint and was one of the first to use spray guns as tools for his paintings.