Small Format Painting at 56 Henry Gallery

By AMANDA WALL June 28, 2025

56 Henry Gallery collaborated with artist, Josh Smith and art dealer, Leo Fitzpatrick to curate an exhibition focused on small format paintings. As soon as you see the precariously spray-painted sign with no gallery logo, you discover this show isn’t just touching on the trend in smaller works. This exhibition is a collective convergence of established artists and skaters who are artists.

My instinct was to find the Josh Smith immediately. Instead of the reaper and palm trees, he actually painted the film credits for the exhibition. I love this gesture, taking a backseat and letting his friends shine. Brad Brad Kahlhamer did the same at his artist talk at Venus Over the Manhattan, promoting his musician friend, Allison Mosshart during the interview. Leo Fitzpatrick is also a skater and has expressed the mission to bring skate culture to his LES gallery in an interview with Artnet news. Established artists and dealers are organizing shows that incorporate their other passions. 

Josh Smith, Announcment Painting, 2025

The canvases were all 8 x 10 inches, from Soho Art Materials. This decision has Marxist flair. Pair it with skater Rage Against the Machine vibes, and the political undertones might be more stimulating than the paintings. The standouts were a quirky Nicole Eisenman echoing the messiness and humor in her sculptures, and a graceful Rider in the Rain by Rita Ackermann, etched in ocean blue. Another favorite, Wade Guyton’s Untitled, an inkjet print on canvas, intensely embodied 90s skate culture and the association with skaters, surfers and snowboarders as graphic designers.

It took me back to the alternative magazine, Raygun and the pro-surfer/graphic designer, David Carson. In the 90s, Carson brought surfing to graphic design and transformed it to totally gnarly, rule breaking aesthetics that motivated artists to become graphic designers. Perhaps Smith, Fitzpatrick and 56 Henry are doing something similar with skate culture and art. Artists are reminding us, they are multidimensional with many creative interests. Our worlds collide regularly. For example, I’m sitting next to a great jazz band at Arthouse Hotel, making my point in real time, and visiting with the band during their break about jazz, funk, art and art criticism. 

Small format feels like very miniature paintings, following a long running contemporary demand for large scale painting and sculpture. If you follow The World of Interiors, you’ll notice more of a throwback to salon hanging and classed up clutter. These works remind us of something intimate, sentimental, and nostalgic. You would expect the prices to be approachable, but the prestige of who painted it still applies, although, still affordable for a Josh Smith. The most expensive, Stump, by Fred Tomaselli, was impressive and labor intensive.

The cannabis leaf layer under a painting that juxtaposes scientific forms with an indigenous inspired pattern, hints at the alternative side of being an artist. Altered states of mind, alternative music, alt-sports and alt-lifestyles all weave into a work of art. This is literally the message with current exhibitions in the Bowery and LES where established artists and dealers are collaborating in a very democratic way. The artist community is aware that creativity is an act of activism. Maybe, just remembering what fueled our rage against the machine is enough to wake up our dormant inner rebels. Maybe there’s such a thing as a fresh, more enlightened rebellion. Call it a: Renaissance, a rebirth, a combination of rebellion and revival. This brewing force, you must feel. You can not over intellectualize or kill its mystery and power.  

Fred Tomaselli, Stump, 2025, Leaves, acrylic, photo collage and resin on linen

Artists and dealers are following their intuition. Again, the priority is art and community, not only profit. The priority is to work, create and exhibit with absolute freedom. The pro to declining auction sales is a slowing down of a market that has been driving profit over the integrity of art. Sacrifices will be made to enforce higher quality standards. There will be growing pains, but growth being the outcome. This energizing feeling is recognition of a collective effort to revitalize. 

I have been invited to self curated, Gen Z exhibitions and the same is happening. Emerging artists are taking the power back. Some are art students who are not waiting around for a gallery to reach out or discover them on Instagram. Take a trip to the Met Museum, the Impressionist section has a brilliant fresh curation involving a look at what was considered good painting by the Paris Salon when the Salon des Refusés was born. The Impressionists we now consider geniuses were rejected by the art autocracy of their time. These scrappy Gen Z artists organizing their own Salons, could be the geniuses of the future. 

In addition to the scrappy Gen Zs, the art world need not discriminate on the basis of age, social status, or appearance it's a return to talent crushing trendiness. Just as America has been revisiting the Constitution, so does the art world need a refresher course on true equality. There has been much discourse on authenticity that did exist, but it became harder and harder to find amid an oversaturated art market. 

Basing selection on talent rather than fame, was about half of Small Format Painting, a strategy meant to boost the exposure of lesser known talent connected to established artists and dealers. Artist’s supporting artists is a win. Dealers thinking democratically giving established artists more power, is another win. There are layers to this exhibition that are exhilarating, promising and stirring anticipation for what comes next. Skate culture and alternative music influenced a generation and now they are positioned to make a difference. WM

Small Format Painting, 105 Henry Street, June 5 – August 1, 2025