Seeing and Recognition The Paintings of Lee Sherry

View Selected Works

Seeing and Recognition

The Paintings of Lee Sherry (1947-2012)

Curated by David McDonough, Susan Bee, Zak Vreeland

May 28 - June 28, 2026

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 28th, 6-8pm

“I like the painting to reveal itself as you look at it. The longer you look the more you see. I get it up in a way so that it can keep coming as in the act of seeing something one sees more and more. The moment of seeing and recognition, that is the subject of my painting.”

– Lee Sherry

So Lee Sherry wrote on a small piece of scrap paper that she tucked in with other studies and works on paper.

The paintings Lee made demonstrate a committed and thoroughly engaged approach to painting. She left behind work that rewards deep contemplation over a long period of time. These works gradually unfold as we see more and more in a sustained viewing. Looking at her work, one becomes aware of how much she packs into a single painting. Each painting is its own contained world, each has its own journey of making and discovery. Whether incorporating special Renaissance techniques for binding pigment, or making dozens of paintings with only two colors, Lee built paintings where luminous layers of animals, alphabets, shifting patterns, or repeated shapes intersect and dissolve, unfolding in a space of continuous transformation.

Seeing and Recognition is the first survey show of the paintings of Lee Sherry (1947-2012). Lee was the daughter of founders of The Second City theater troupe. She had close ties to the Language poets and was part of an avant-garde painting circle in SoHo. Lee showed in the 1970s and 1980s but never gained wide recognition or fame. She left behind a mysterious and enigmatic body of work that is particular to her sensibility while channeling centuries of painting interests and special techniques. Rarely seen yet deeply resonant, Sherry’s singular practice feels at once ancient and strikingly fresh. This show introduces her elusive and poetic work to a new audience.

ARTIST BIO

Born in Chicago in 1947 to Fritzie and Bernard Sahlins, both founders of the legendary theater troupe Second City, Lee Sherry attended Reed College with David Reed, Leslie Scalapino, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, and James Sherry, whom she later married. In the summer of 1969 she and James Sherry moved to Tangiers for several years, then moving back to Cape Cod and then to NYC in 1974 where she would live until her death in 2012. She had significant relationships with the artist Porfirio DiDonna (1942-1986) and the poet Peter Seaton (1942-2010).

Lee designed ROOF magazine, where she was also the art editor. In addition, she designed a number of early Roof Books covers, including Ron Silliman’s The New Sentence. Lee showed her paintings in solo, two person, and group shows at the Susan Caldwell Gallery (NY), Gloria Cortella, Inc. (NY), Schmidt, Inc. (NY), and Nielsen Gallery (Boston, MA), among others.

Field of Play is located at 126 13th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

For more information about Seeing and Recognition, including appointments, sales, and press inquiries, please contact Field of Play at fieldofplaybk@gmail.com.

Gallery hours are Fridays - Sundays from 1-6 pm, and by appointment.