THE AUDACITY PAINT OF
THE 114TH ANNUAL EXHIBITION
OF CONTEMPORARY ART
THE AUDACIT OF PAI
OCTOBER 19, 2025 – MARCH 8, 2026
AUDACITY PAINT
The Audacity of Paint features work by contemporary American artists whose primary medium is paint. The exhibition includes work by Sally Egbert, Julia Jo, Sue McNally, and Walter Price.
As creativity is increasingly informed by artificial intelligence, artists who maintain a commitment to the purity of the medium are challenging these new conventions, whether intentionally or not. In an interesting historical twist, the “gold standard” medium, against which artists once rebelled (much to our collective benefit) is now getting closer to being the scrappy resistance.
The Audacity of Paint is an unabashed expression of the resiliency and power of paint in our digitally saturated age. Within this technological milieu, nevertheless, paint persists with its sensual qualities and malleable, human mark-making— audacious not only in its refusal to defer to AI-driven modes, but also in its ability to express impractical joy.
Julia Jo’s work centers on paint. Figures eventually emerge from somewhere within the brushstrokes. There is a closeness to them that suggests both intimacy and ambiguity in a space where gender may be as fluid as the paint. In every work, the figures remain a mysterious, captivating subplot. Jo is emphatic about the paint and its ability to convey the layered, convoluted nature of human relationships.
Sue McNally paints bold, abstracted landscapes, audacious in color and scale. For years, she has documented specific American states in this way, capturing an essence of each place.
Sally Egbert also paints fluid, organic forms but with a more subtle brush and delicate lines. Her abstractions give the sense of being submerged in something ethereal yet freely breathing.
Walter Price’s imagery flows between figuration and abstraction while focusing on the primacy of paint and “the importance of a beautiful gesture, a beautiful mark, a beautiful glob of paint.”1
The Audacity of Paint provides an immersive experience, encouraging discussions around topics as wide-ranging as technical aspects of painting, the use of technology in artmaking, and the role of unabashed, luscious beauty within the larger context of society and community.
The 114th Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art is a return to the origins of the Annual Exhibition. For the first 50 years of the series, shows consisted almost entirely of paintings. Since then, they have highlighted the expanding breadth of media practiced by contemporary American artists. The Audacity of Paint is the first Annual in almost 30 years to focus exclusively on painting.
Martha Kjeseth Johnson Director of
the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College and Curator of The Audacity of Paint
August 2025
SALLY EGBERT
Branches, 2024
Acrylic, oil, hand painted fabric on canvas 40 x 50 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
Night Garden, 2024
Acrylic, oil, hand painted fabric, thread on canvas
48 x 60 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
SALLY EGBERT
Rising/Setting, 2024
Acrylic and oil on canvas
60 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
Saturnia, 2022
Acrylic, oil and mixed media on canvas 60 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
JULIA JO
Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed, 2025
Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen 70 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Catching Fire, 2025 Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen 70 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
JULIA JO
Double Take, 2025
Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen 80 x 80 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Old Bruises, 2025 Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen 60 x 60 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Bonaventure Cemetery, GA, 2014
Oil on canvas
90 x 114 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Louisiana Swamp, LA, 2016 Oil and charcoal on canvas 90 x 114 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Kentucky Trees, KY, 2016 Oil and charcoal on canvas
Diptych 80 x 136 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Utah Woods, 2019 Oil on canvas
40 x 44 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
WALTER PRICE
Uncanny strangeness, 2025
Acrylic, gesso, and vinyl on canvas
60 x 80 in.
© Walter Price
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner
The sailor who fell from grace with the sea, 2025 Acrylic, gouache, gesso, and chrome pen on linen
44 1/8 x 58 1/8 in.
© Walter Price
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner
THE ARTISTS
SALLY EGBERT (b.1958, Bay Shore, New York) has been making paintings, drawings, and installations between New York City and the Hamptons for over three decades. Egbert studied at SUNY, New Paltz, and was the recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Gottlieb Foundation, and The New York State Foundation for the Arts. Egbert's work has been exhibited and collected internationally. Her work can be found in permanent collections throughout the United States. Reviewing Egbert's work in Art in America, Eileen Myles notes, "Sally Egbert's oil paintings are as hypnotic as aquariums … (her) chief concern seems to be pinpointing distinctions to name the moment in color and space." Glenn O’Brien, in a catalog essay, describes Egbert's work: "These magical tableaux conjure dream states outside of experience and history, but they seem to evoke not what has happened, but what will happen—a balance of a state that we have experienced and one that we are moving toward with the attraction of sublime unknowns." Egbert is represented by Tripoli Gallery.
JULIA JO (b.1991, Seoul, South Korea) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her MFA at Parsons School of Design in 2019 after graduating with a BFA from Smith College in 2016. Jo uses a vibrant color palette to create compositions that blur the figurative and the abstract. She spent her childhood and adolescence moving between South Korea and states across the United States. She draws upon a deep, personal well of moments lost in translation, social miscues and interpersonal distance to inspire her practice. Her paintings are grounded in the self-doubt, conflict, and misunderstanding that can subsume any relationship, with human forms dynamically rendered through careful line, color, and shadow to simultaneously reveal and conceal. Jo has been featured in solo exhibitions at Charles Moffett, New York; James Fuentes, Los Angeles; and Jessican Silverman, San Francisco. In the fall of 2023, she participated in the esteemed Beecher Residency in Litchfield, Connecticut. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. She is represented by Charles Moffett Gallery.
SUE MCNALLY (b.1967, Washington, D.C.) divides her time between Newport, Rhode Island, southeastern Utah and traveling throughout the United States. Raised in New England, she earned a BFA from the University of Rhode Island and an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. McNally draws figures, often self-portraits, but is best known for her paintings evocative of landscape. Her most ambitious body of work is her States series representing many years of exploring the American landscape, camping and hiking in rural and remote areas. In addition to other explorations in the studio, her ongoing project is to paint images inspired by the natural environment of each state. McNally has held numerous artist residencies, and her artwork is in permanent collections including the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; the Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island; the North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks; the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; the Tamarind Institute Archive, Albuquerque; and the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. McNally is represented by Jennifer Baahng Gallery.
WALTER PRICE (b.1989, Macon, Georgia) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include Greene Naftali, New York (2025; 2022; 2020); the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2024); David Zwirner, Los Angeles (2024); Camden Art Centre, London (2021); Aspen Art Museum (2019); MoMA PS1, New York (2018); and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2018). His work was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate, London; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Aïshti Foundation, Lebanon; and Rollins Museum of Art, Orlando, among others. He is represented by David Zwirner and Greene Naftali.
© Walter Price.
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
THE 114TH ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART: THE AUDACITY OF PAINT
OCTOBER 19, 2025–MARCH 8, 2026
Sally Egbert
Branches, 2024
Acrylic, oil, hand painted fabric on canvas
40 x 50 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
Sally Egbert
Night Garden, 2024
Acrylic, oil, hand painted fabric, thread on canvas
48 x 60 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
Sally Egbert
Rising/Setting, 2024
Acrylic and oil on canvas
60 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
Sally Egbert
Saturnia, 2022
Acrylic, oil and mixed media on canvas
60 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Tripoli Gallery and the artist
Julia Jo
Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed, 2025
Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen
70 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Julia Jo
Catching Fire, 2025
Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen
70 x 70 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Julia Jo
Double Take, 2025
Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen
80 x 80 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Julia Jo
Old Bruises, 2025
Oil, oil pastel, and oil stick on linen
60 x 60 in.
Courtesy of Charles Moffett and the artist
Sue McNally
Bonaventure Cemetery, GA, 2014
Oil on canvas
90 x 114 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Sue McNally
Kentucky Trees, KY, 2016
Oil and charcoal on canvas
Diptych 80 x 136 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Sue McNally
Louisiana Swamp, LA, 2016
Oil and charcoal on canvas
90 x 114 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Sue McNally
Utah Woods, 2019
Oil on canvas
40 x 44 in.
Courtesy of Jennifer Baahng Gallery and the artist
Walter Price
Uncanny strangeness, 2025
Acrylic, gesso, and vinyl on canvas
60 x 80 in.
© Walter Price
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner
Walter Price
The sailor who fell from grace with the sea, 2025
Acrylic, gouache, gesso, and chrome pen on linen
44 1/8 x 58 1/8 in.
© Walter Price
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Our thanks go first to intrepid artists Sally Egbert, Julia Jo, Sue McNally, and Walter Price for having the audacity to paint like it matters and like they mean it—gobsmacking us with color and scale. We thank them for boldly holding joy up to us.
We are grateful to their representatives and gallerists: Charles Moffett, was enthusiastically supportive from the beginning, followed by Jennifer Baahng and Tripoli Patterson. David Zwirner Gallery staff Jonathan Laib and Linda Yun were similarly responsive and encouraging. This exhibition came together because of them.
Every Maier staff member contributed to realizing The Audacity of Paint and the programming inspired by it: Kathleen Fort, administrative manager; Jake Lofaso, registrar; Laura McManus, curator of education; John Spanich, museum guard and preparator, and Melinda Wheeler, gallery monitor.
Once again, our most heartfelt gratitude goes to Mary Gray Shockey ’69, trustee emerita, who has supported this series since 2011. She specializes in connecting people with art and doing so with wisdom and humility. She loves discovery and creativity and fosters opportunities for both through her generosity.
ABOUT THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY ART
The First Annual Exhibition was installed at the College in 1911. It is the longestrunning series of original exhibitions of contemporary art staged annually by any small liberal arts college in the United States. Careful acquisition from each of the Annuals has resulted in Randolph College’s outstanding collection of American art, chiefly paintings, works on paper, and photographs dating from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.
The Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art has been an important and distinctive academic experience, year after year fulfilling its original goal of providing students with a primary resource that brings them closer to understanding and appreciating art as an expression of their own time in history.
