Image: Foundry Gallery, Washington, DC
Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC, will present ‘Epilogue,’ an exhibition of paintings by Kurtis Ceppetelli and Matt Malone, who worked together under the name Duly Noted Painters. The exhibition’s opening reception is scheduled for September 5, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the gallery’s space at 2118 8th Street Northwest.
The presentation follows Ceppetelli’s unexpected death earlier in 2026, which brought the artists’ 17-year collaboration to an abrupt end. The exhibition is framed by the gallery as both a body of paintings and a record of an artistic exchange that cannot continue in its previous form. The works document a process in which the painters responded to, observed and challenged one another over nearly two decades.
According to the exhibition material, Duly Noted Painters did not follow a fixed division of labor. Ceppetelli and Malone sometimes worked on a canvas simultaneously, while at other times one artist stepped back and watched until deciding to reengage. Their individual tendencies gradually became intertwined, with the painting itself serving as the focus of the collaboration.
The works span the artists’ career and include paintings shaped by art-historical references, travel and experiments with language. ‘Repentant Saint Peter,’ a reinterpretation of El Greco’s ‘The Repentant St. Peter,’ uses heavy black brushstrokes to conceal nearly all of the depicted figure except a sorrowful eye and praying hands. The painting also reflects the influence of The Phillips Collection, where the artists first met while working as museum guards.
‘Halifax II’ depicts sailboats faintly moored in a cove at night. The painting was made during a visit with friends in Halifax and reflects the social setting in which the artists often worked. Their studio was frequently shared with friends and other artists, and many of the paintings were completed in a single session, according to the exhibition description.
Text is another recurring element in the collaboration. ‘Green Poem I’ developed from an experiment in producing poetry through the same shared method used for the paintings. In ‘Fell,’ text appears behind and over fields of color, brushwork and abstract forms. The exhibition also includes ‘The Matador,’ identified as the last painting completed by the artists. It was intended as part of a larger series and shows a matador from behind, mounted on a wall, while two images of a charging bull create a time-lapse effect.
Foundry Gallery lists public hours as Friday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. The opening reception for ‘Epilogue’ will take place on Saturday, September 5, from 4 to 7 p.m.
