The Arts Center at Duck Creek is thrilled to announce an upcoming solo exhibition featuring artist Natalie Edgar, opening Saturday, May 4 and on view through Sunday, June 2, 2024. A reception will be held on Saturday, May 11, from 5-7 pm.

Organized by curator and art consultant Juan Puntes, this exhibit comprises a selection of abstract paintings and prints by Natalie Edgar from the 1970s, highlighting her singular approach to art. Her boundary-breaking style has earned her a reputation as an artist who defied convention. As she explained, she “deepened the experience and continuity of the [picture] plane as treated in early Abstract Expressionism, expanding its power.”

In 1978, Edgar, her husband Philip Pavia, a renowned sculptor and co-founder of The Club, and their two sons moved their studio barn from Southold, on the North Fork, across Peconic Bay to Squaw Road in Springs, just a stone's throw from the Arts Center at Duck Creek. “We are honored to share the work of our distinguished neighbor,” said Jess Frost, the center’s executive director. “Her imagery is a testament to her mastery of color and the activation of negative space. Her compositions feature striking color paths that captivate the viewer.”

Edgar's illustrious career as a painter was ignited by her mentor Mark Rothko, with whom she studied at Brooklyn College. She earned a degree in Art History from Columbia University and went on to become an art critic for Artnews. She wrote for the magazine from 1959 to 1973 and reviewed exhibitions of work by Isamu Noguchi, Esteban Vicente, Robert Motherwell and other major New York School artists. Influenced by figures like her teacher Ad Reinhardt, her friends Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, and her husband, she emerged as a formidable presence in the art world. Her book, Club Without Walls, an edited selection of her late husband’s journals, was published in 2007.