Paula Cooper Gallery and Sprüth Magers will present coordinated exhibitions of works by Frank Stella in New York in spring 2027. Developed with the Frank Stella Estate, the two-venue project will revisit the artist's influential approach to abstraction, materials and spatial form.
The exhibitions will draw from different stages of Stella's career, with particular attention to works from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Together, they aim to highlight the artist's evolution from rigorously structured paintings toward increasingly dimensional compositions that challenged the boundary between painting and sculpture.
A dialogue across two galleries
Both galleries have longstanding connections to Stella's practice. Sprüth Magers previously hosted solo presentations in Berlin and Los Angeles, while Paula Cooper Gallery included his work in several group exhibitions and more recent focused presentations.
The collaboration is designed as a shared curatorial conversation rather than a formal estate representation arrangement. By staging parallel exhibitions, the galleries will offer audiences an opportunity to consider Stella's work through multiple perspectives and alongside the broader artistic ideas that shaped postwar American art.
Key works at Art Basel Paris
Before the New York exhibitions, each gallery will present a Stella work at Art Basel Paris. Sprüth Magers will show Tuftonboro III from the 1966 "Irregular Polygons" series, while Paula Cooper Gallery will feature Zabludow III from the 1973 "Polish Village" series.
These works reflect major shifts in Stella's language: from shaped canvases that redefined the physical limits of painting to wall-based constructions with sculptural presence. The "Polish Village" works, informed by historic wooden synagogue architecture in Poland, illustrate his expanding interest in layered geometry, structure and movement.
The dual presentation may encourage a new generation of viewers to see Stella's experimentation not only as art history, but as an active framework for future creative practice.
