Presented by M. David & Co., the exhibition Singing in Unison, Part 12: Painting in Space brings together four artists whose innovations reshaped the possibilities of geometry, scale, and dimensionality in painting. Al Held, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, and Frank Stella—artists linked by friendship, admiration, and influence—are shown together here for the first time. Curated by Michael David in cooperation with the Brooklyn Rail’s ongoing Singing in Unison series, the presentation expands the conversation on how form becomes space, and how painting pushes past its own boundaries.

The exhibition originates from a conversation between David and Judy Pfaff several years ago—one that moved fluidly from Pfaff’s mentorship under Al Held to her deep friendships with Elizabeth Murray and her admiration for Frank Stella. While the four were not literally “in unison” at any single point in time, their shared rigor, geometric language, and refusal to accept painting’s limits bound them together.

Held’s vast spatial illusions, Murray’s shaped canvases, Pfaff’s sculptural environments, and Stella’s architectural constructions each challenge the flat plane. Their approaches diverge, but all insist that painting can occupy space—physically, optically, and conceptually. Viewed together, the works reveal how these artists bent geometry toward personal vocabularies, tested painting’s edges, and redefined what a picture could be.

The exhibition closes with Pfaff’s 2005 tribute to Held, originally published in The Brooklyn Rail, a statement that resonates across all four practices: painting as frontier, deep space as possibility, and the ongoing search for forms that open rather than contain.

This gathering—decades in the making—finally brings these artists into literal conversation. In this moment, Held, Murray, Pfaff, and Stella are indeed Singing in Unison.
—Michael David

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Singing in Unison, Part 12: Painting in Space
Artists: Al Held, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, Frank Stella
Curated by: Michael David

Location: Art Cake (Presented by M. David & Co.)
Website: https://www.mdavidandco.com
Address: 214 40th Street, Brooklyn, NY
Dates: October 18 – December 7, 2025

  • Judy Pfaff, Buttercup (1991), Lacquered steel, wiggle board, found objects, dimensions variable