ThePaintingsofBeate Wheeler
January 31 – March 7, 2026
Heather Gaudio Fine Art, in partnership with Moss Galleries, is pleased to present ThePaintingsofBeateWheeler, her first solo exhibition at the gallery. On view January 31 – March 7, 2026, the exhibition will feature 15 paintings by the late Abstract
Expressionist artist dating from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Front Cover: Beate Wheeler, Untitled(BW-5303), detail
All images are copyright of the artist unless otherwise noted
Although largely overlooked by mainstream art history and the art market, Wheeler was very active and closely associated with the Abstract Expressionists of her time, forming an indelible part of the complex narrative of American art in the Twentieth Century.
“We are so proud to present current fine art audiences and local art enthusiasts the opportunity to discover and learn about an epochal and under-recognized female artist,” states Heather Gaudio.
Beate Wheeler (1932 – 2017)
Beate Wheeler (1932-2017) was born in Berlin and fled Nazi Germany with her family, arriving in Ellis Island in 1938.
Wheeler earned her BFA from Syracuse University in 1954, followed by an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley under the tutelage of Abstract Expressionist painter Milton Resnick. The artist then moved to New York City and became a founding member of the March Gallery (19581960) alongside Patricia Passlof, Elaine de Kooning and Robert Beauchamp. March Gallery was one of the eight artist cooperative galleries that formed part of the 10th Street cooperative scene, a collective of artist-run galleries that operated in the East Village and Manhattan’s East Side.
These galleries showcased avant-garde contemporary art and offered alternative spaces to the more conservative and highly selective Madison and 57th Street galleries
Today, galleries and artists working in the Tenth Street Coops are considered to have played a significant role in the growth and diversification of styles in the history of American art. Many of the artists in Wheeler’s circle have since become well-known (such as Lois Dodd, Lynne Drexler, Alex Katz, Mark DiSuvero and Alice Neel, among others.)
Despite a career marked by early successes, however, Wheeler and other equally actively engaged artists gradually slipped from public memory and remain obscured in today’s story of American modern art. Over her decades-long career, Wheeler dedicated herself fully to her craft and managed an incredible output of paintings and drawings. Her works were exhibited in various galleries during her lifetime, including the National Arts Club, and she sold many paintings to private collectors including Nelson A. Rockefeller. ARTnewsdubbed her an “artists’ artist.”
Wheeler’s approach to painting was introspective her rich palette led her to explore color theory and composition with a distinctive style. Color, light and form are balanced in her works, with autographic gestures and pictorial marks rendering beautiful lyrical abstractions. Earlier paintings from the 1960s and 70s are more tightly rendered than later executions from the 1980s and 90s but unified by her emphasis on process and mark-making. Brushstrokes reveal themselves throughout, whether as smaller woven webs of pigment or more painterly accident. The sense of the material in her approach to painting is evident. Wheeler’s myriads of strokes and color offer an impressionistic type of language, with visual references to a floral lexicon.
Acting much like characters of color arranged in coded forms, the dynamic optical fields offer no focal point or compositional center. The paintings are galvanized with unexpected color relationships, some with atmospheric backgrounds, others with bold hues and brushstrokes.
While a fluid spontaneity appears to make up most of the gestures, there is a system to Wheeler’s mark-making that renders an evocative cohesiveness to the overall colorful composition.
Right: Beate Wheeler, Untitled(BW-5296),detail
