Then & Now: 1970–2024
September 6th - Extended through November 2nd, 2024
Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013
Storage is pleased to present Then & Now: 1970–2024, a solo exhibition by Jeff Way (b. 1942). Then & Now: 1970–2024 traces the evolution of Jeff Way’s abstract work from the past to the present. Deeply focused on engagement with grid abstraction and spiritualism, Way distills qualities from West Coast and East Coast abstractionists alike. His work occupies a unique position alongside Agnes Martin, Mark Rothko, McArthur Binion, and Jack Whitten, who similarly share a profound connection to the exploration of geometric forms, grids, and their metaphysical implications.
Jeff Way has lived and worked in Tribeca, New York City, for over fifty years. He gained significant recognition in 1973 when Marcia Tucker selected his work for the Whitney Museum’s first official Biennial, which was followed by his solo exhibition at the museum in 1974. Way’s work Ivy’s Gas, gifted by Larry Aldrich, remains part of their permanent collection.
Now, Storage is pleased to feature Way’s new and historical works that illuminate duality and abstraction of the grid. The exhibition displays a striking contrast between flatness and depth in Way’s paintings and the processes he uses to achieve them. Way's abstract practice is deeply rooted in the grid, a motif he explored in the late 1960s, beginning with his Chalk Line Painting series. These early works are constructed using raw pigment snapped onto the canvas in single lines, layering to form dimensional shapes. This series reflects techniques he has honed, reducing painting to its most elemental form.
In his most recent series, Eccentric Squares, Way returns to his exploration of the grid but introduces newer elements that highlight a dynamic and unconventional approach. These paintings, composed again with his distinctive lines, use intersecting colors to create bold, de-centered squares. The result is an immediate dichotomy between the flatness of the surface and the depth of colors and forms within the constructed grid. Way likens his colored lines to musical notes—a fundamental unit of sensory communication—through which he creates harmony, dissonance, and rhythm.
Unlike the rigid, centered grids of his predecessors, Way’s grids are eccentric and fluid, offering a fresh perspective on abstract painting within the downtown New York art scene of the 1960s and beyond. By decentralizing the linear and geometric forms canonized by artists like Piet Mondrian and Sol Lewitt, Way’s work challenges conventional expectations and invites viewers to reconsider the role of grids in abstract compositions. His paintings emerge as living, breathing elements that carry the weight of decades of artistic research and experimentation.
Then & Now: 1970–2024 opens on September 6th and is extended through November 2nd, 2024. The exhibition is held at Storage, located on the fourth floor of 52 Walker Street, Tribeca, NY. This exhibition reaffirms Storage's mission to honor the legacies of intergenerational artists like Jeff Way, whose work continues to inspire and challenge the boundaries of contemporary art.