The exhibit "Feeling Color" highlights the works of artists Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling. The exhibit was organized by the Modern and Curator María Elena Ortiz, celebrating the work of these two artists and their contributions to the story of abstract painting in the late 20th century.

Williams (1926-1990) and Bowling (b. 1934) migrated from British Guiana (now Guyana) in South America to European and American cities in the 1950s, escaping social upheavals in their native country. Expanding on the international legacies of abstraction that are among the Modern’s central concerns, these artists’ works show that, even in moments of despair, art creates a space for refuge, reckoning, and imagination.

The exhibition puts both artists in conversation, illustrating Williams’s powerful commitment to investigating abstract forms and Bowling’s painterly and experimental approach. Williams was Bowling’s elder, and together their works provide an opportunity to reflect on the power of art and abstraction in the 20th century.