ISABEL SULLIVAN GALLERY

Metallic Prints

January 30th, 2025 — March 8th, 2025

The Artists Room

39 Lispenard Street NY, NY 10013

Isabel Sullivan Gallery is pleased to announce Mercer Tullis: Metallic Prints, a show of nine innovative prints on stainless steel in the gallery’s project space, THE ARTISTS ROOM. The prints offer Mercer a fluid medium to explore, a break from the extraordinarily meticulous practice of his graphite and oil paintings. The show will be on view from January 30 - March 8, 2025 at 39 Lispenard Street in Tribeca. 

This collection includes both color and black-and-white prints which are made using UV ink on stainless steel. Ink is printed onto a surface, which is then cured by UV light, causing it to dry instantly. This process results in a sharper and more vibrant image. Part of the metal is left as negative space, creating a reflective effect throughout each print. Every color combination is unique and will not be repeated, while the black-and-white runs are printed in a small edition of 10. Each stainless steel print is applied to a thick, rigid surface, resulting in a weighted, sculptural object. 

The prints are based off of the artist’s original paintings. The imagery focuses on intimate scenes of emotional moments, such as the work A Month, A Year, which depicts a woman seated on the edge of a bathtub, her head resting on her hand, appearing contemplative or somber. Painted during the Covid 19 pandemic, this image peers into a time of loneliness, fear, and self-care. Our Father Watches is a portrait of two boys in the ocean, one positioned under a crashing wave while the other rises above it. The figures stand as an emblem of community, for the ways in which we rise up when another is knocked down. A distant boat is visible on the horizon line, representing the unknown coming or going. The title refers to the presence of a being outside the frame, such as a parent, God, or teacher, who watches over, weighing the possibilities, circumstances, decisions, and consequences in every moment. 

Figures are often portrayed in private areas like the bedroom or bathroom, conveying their vulnerability. Using dramatic lighting and realistic rendering, Mercer’s compositions are emotive, timeless, and deeply human. His figures interact with things outside the room, outside the picture frame, perhaps symbolizing the way we long for meaning beyond the confines of our finite lives. Mercer invites us into the realm of the subconscious, to explore the isolation of modern life.

New Realism - Looking Forward and Back

Thursday March 14th, 2024 - Sunday April 21st, 2024

39 Lispenard Street NY, NY 10013

“The past and present wilt – I have fill’d them, emptied them, And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.” – Song of Myself, Walt Whitman 

Isabel Sullivan Gallery is pleased to present Realism Today: Looking Forward and Back as its inaugural exhibition in Tribeca. The group exhibition, featuring recent works by Neil Jenney, Joseph Santore, Elisa Jensen, Victor Leger, Mercer Tullis, and Frank Webster, will be on view from March 14 through April 21, 2024. An opening reception will be held on March 14 from 6-8pm at 39 Lispenard Street. 

A myriad of iterations of Realism have emerged since its inception in late 19th century France. Gustave Courbet and Jean-Francois Millet sought to convey truth and objectivity through embodied depictions of modern life and its array of social classes. German artists Otto Dix and George Grosz’s meticulous Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) paintings, created during the short-lived Weimar Republic, responded to the brutality of the First World War. Their American counterparts, Edward Hopper and George Bellows, created a new American visual idiom through their depictions of the urbanization of America and its shifting class structures. Despite the disparate geographical production of these Realist painters, what each respective iteration shares most prominently is their emergence and proliferation following great moments of social, political, or cultural change. 

The past few years have been no exception to this artistic penchant, as there has been an increase in artists turning to themes intrinsic to Realism, and a recommitment to time-honored subjects, such as genre, landscape, and figurative. Realism has always functioned primarily as a means to record our epoch and its dwellers, however in its present context, the paintings included possess both objectivity and expression. Through Jenney’s painted, sculptural skyscapes, to Jensen’s shadowed, yet vibrant, intimate interiors, to Santore’s dynamic and existential paintings reflecting the human condition, to Mercer’s meditative yet piercing graphite works, and finally to Webster and Leger’s serene topographical canvases, we pose the question: What is Realism today? 

The exhibition presents a selection of paintings that utilize various concepts and technical aspects of Realism. Realism today stands as the rebirth of the three-dimensional picture plane, and a turning away from abstraction. The artists included explore both internal and external space, the natural world and urban life, memory and imagination, offering a respite from the modern world. Their reflections of nature and humanity are presented for us to behold, to momentarily possess and perhaps to stir a particular affect. Our exhibition presents a survey of artists looking both forward and back – painting through the tides of today. 

The gallery is delighted to have organized this exhibition in collaboration with Neil Jenney, who has remained ardently committed to both curating and exhibiting shows associated with Realism. He most recently curated the group exhibition American Realism Today at the New Britain Museum of American Art, from September 16, 2022- January 01, 2023, in which Mercer Tullis and Victor Leger were included. We are indebted to his generosity, kindness, and guidance in helping the gallery realize our inaugural exhibition. 

American Realism Today

Friday, September 16, 2022 - Sunday, January 01, 2023

56 Lexington St, New Britain, CT 06052

Capturing scenes of the landscape and everyday life, American Realism Today celebrates the rich tradition of Realist art in America while reflecting the innovative spirit of our contemporary times. The exhibition encompasses more than 50 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, by a network of 21 artists working across generations, including Robert Lobe, Kathleen Gilje, Joseph McNamara, James Prosek, Faith Ringgold, Mercer Tullis and many others.

American Realism Today is curated by acclaimed artist Neil Jenney (b. 1945, Torrington, CT), who is known for his unique and influential brand of Realist painting, steeped in the landscape, people, and pastimes of America. The subject of a retrospective exhibition at the NBMAA in 2018, Jenney now returns to the Museum as artist-curator, presenting the first survey of contemporary American Realism made by the current New York scene in over half a century.

May 31, 2014 - June 7, 2014

170 SUFFOLK STREET NY,  10002 

170 Suffolk Street, is a garage that once housed a gravestone manufacturing  company. In the interest of exploring artists as show organizers, we  challenged ourselves to address the conflicts we experienced during the  process of installing our last show, 15 Warren. We battled with the subjectivity of our  own judgement, constantly attempted to articulate our creative  processes, and struggled with our motivations as artists and "curators".  As a group of friends that often works together, we questioned our own  connection to each other and the spaces we create in. Tommy Malekoff,  Spencer Tullis, Mercer Tullis, Lorenzo Bueno, Jack Shannon, Cody  Ranaldo, Alec Martin, Keefe Butler, Jack Irving and Matt Jackson's  varying approaches and perspectives have established a conversation that  is unique to 170 Suffolk, and is a complete departure from the themes explored at 15 Warren.