Mary Obering paintings exhibited in Los Angeles for the first time

In 1971, the artist Mary Obering moved from Colorado to Soho, at the height of the neighbourhood’s transformation into an artist haven. Nearly 50 years later, the celebrated painter appears in her first solo show at Kayne Griffin Corcoran in Los Angeles, after the gallery began representing her earlier this year.
Rather than a debut, the show feels more like an announcement: Obering has always been there, and the exhibition, on view through 3 November, centres on a suite of abstract paintings from the 1970s. To follow, Obering has worked in the very same Soho studio she first arrived in up into the present day.
Black March, 1974, by Mary Obering, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Kayne Griffin Corcoran
Born in Louisiana in 1937, Obering later traveled to Italy as a young artist, which stoked her interest in art-making – but it was in Soho, at the urging of figures like Carl Andre, that she began to work on large-scale paintings for which she became more widely known. Her work experimented with ideas culled from colour field paintings as well as abstraction, and went on to appear in the 1975 Whitney Biennial as well as in exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Artists Space, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
The rich jewel tones and distinctive textural quality of her geometric compositions, however, in fact take their cues from the Old Masters – an unlikely source for the quietly combative canvases for which Obering has been celebrated since the mid-1970s. Obering uses original paintmaking techniques, relying on egg tempera and gold-leaf on gessoed panel, to create a sense of tactility and the deep hues of her paintings.
In works such as Déjà Vu (1975), thick ochres butt up against petal-thin pinks in layers of abstracted shapes; or in the case of Fleshscape (1975), a layering of bruise purple, blood-red, and scar orange hints at a drama unfolding on its layered surface.
Balcony, 1975, by Mary Obering, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Kayne Griffin Corcoran
Caddo Day, 1974, by Mary Obering, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Kayne Griffin Corcoran
Déjà Vu, 1975, by Mary Obering, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Kayne Griffin Corcoran
INFORMATION
‘Mary Obering’ is on view until 3 November. For more information, visit the Kayne Griffin Corcoran website
ADDRESS
Kayne Griffin Corcoran
1201 South La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
Willy Chavarria: ‘We’re still so stuck in fashion‘s old guard’
As part of the August 2025 ‘Made in America’ issue of Wallpaper*, we invited three creative powerhouses to comment on the state of the States. Here, award-winning American fashion designer Willy Chavarria speaks on creative resilience, uniting with activist groups, and shaking up fashion’s old guard
-
Six Indian artists reframe the ladies compartment of a Mumbai local train
An exhibition by Method (India) at Galerie Melike Bilir in Hamburg explores a gendered space
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Fountainhead – a shining example of Usonian design – is now on the market
This quintessential Wright home – built in a vibrant mid-century neighbourhood – was named after a novel inspired by the architect
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene
'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of society
A new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
After decades capturing the world’s fashion-set, photographer Johnny Rozsa picks up a paint brush
In his first exhibition of paintings, the New York-based artist celebrates the vibrancy of Tangier while rediscovering a familiar creative outlet
-
Leila Bartell’s cloudscapes are breezily distorted, a response to an evermore digital world
‘Memory Fields’ is the London-based artist’s solo exhibition at Tristan Hoare Gallery (until 25 July 2025)
-
Marlene Dumas’ charged, exposed and intimate figures gather in Athens
The artist’s work from 1992 until the present day goes on show at Athens’ Museum of Cycladic Art (until 2 November)
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Get lost in Megan Rooney’s abstract, emotional paintings
The artist finds worlds in yellow and blue at Thaddaeus Ropac London
-
Kaari Upson’s unsettling, grotesque and seductive world in Denmark
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is staging the first comprehensive survey of late artist Kaari Upson’s work