Image: Gagosian, New York
Helen Marden’s ‘Interlude of Joy’, an exhibition of new paintings featuring the artist’s largest works to date, has been extended through August 27 at Gagosian’s 541 West 24th Street location in New York. The presentation, which opened on July 14, includes Marden’s first paintings made in a triptych format as well as a group of watercolors on paper.
The exhibition brings together five large, three-part canvases: ‘Summer Simmer’ (2026), ‘Spring’ (2025), ‘Pond Dream’ (2025), ‘Sea Curl’ (2025), and ‘Tivoli Tivoli’ (2025). Each measures 50 by 150 inches overall. Their surfaces combine resin and pigment with materials including sea glass, shells, leaves and other organic matter, extending Marden’s engagement with color into a materially varied, panoramic format.
Marden works with acrylic, resin and powdered pigment, applying the materials to canvas panels positioned on the floor of her studio or outdoors. According to the exhibition description, her process produces vivid hues through glossy, translucent pours and looping, gestural strands across white panels. The resulting abstractions are described as being driven by an experience of joy. “I feel strongest when I’m in my studio,” Marden says in the gallery’s account of the exhibition.
The triptychs are shown alongside three watercolors: ‘Drench’ (2026), ‘Patter I’ (2026), and ‘Frog Hop’ (2025). ‘Drench’ measures 17¾ by 29¾ inches, while ‘Patter I’ and ‘Frog Hop’ measure 22½ by 30 inches and 22½ by 28 inches, respectively. Their inclusion broadens the exhibition’s view of Marden’s practice beyond the scale and layered surfaces of the canvases.
The title ‘Interlude of Joy’ comes from a poem by George Seferis, the Greek poet who received the 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature. The exhibition page identifies the poem’s verses as communicating the elation prompted by experiences of nature, while also ending on a darker reflection about color and human perception. That contrast provides the stated literary context for a presentation built around saturated color, natural materials and imagery suggested by water, vegetation and landscape.
‘Interlude of Joy’ is on view at 541 West 24th Street, New York, through August 27, 2026. The gallery lists its New York hours as Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
