Realities Within presents four enduring genres of artmaking to explore how artists shape, frame, and inhabit the world. Whether a landscape, cityscape, still life, or representation of the human body, these works show how each artist’s reality is impacted by their lived experience. Separated by genre and installed “salon-style”—a term inspired by the eighteenth and nineteenth century Paris Salons, where paintings were hung from floor to ceiling, covering every inch of wall space—the dense arrangement invites close looking and visual comparison, encouraging viewers to find connections across time, style, and subject matter.
The landscape section explores artists’ responses to the natural world, from expansive vistas to intimate views. In contrast, the cityscape section examines the built environment, capturing rhythms of urban life and the evolving character of towns and cities across America. The still life section turns inward, focusing on interior spaces and objects arranged and captured with deliberation. The section with representations of the body centers on the human presence, revealing varied approaches to capturing likeness, identity, and expression.
Featuring old favorites alongside new acquisitions, Realities Within offers a dynamic survey of artistic observation, highlighting how artists have continually returned to these genres to interpret the visible world.
Katherine Sherwood
Red Robe, 2020
Acrylic and mixed media on recycled linen, 98 x 62 inches
Everson Museum of Art; Museum purchase, 2021.34
Allen Tucker
Mid-November, 1930
Oil on canvas, 47⅜ x 56½ inches
Everson Museum of Art; Gift of the Tucker Foundation, 76.28
Beatrice Wose-Smith
Winter Night, Fayette Park, 1937
Oil on canvas, 51¾ x 37½ inches
Everson Museum of Art; Gift of the Wose-Smith Collection, 72.21
The Everson is supported by the General Operating Support program, a regrant program of the County of Onondaga with the support of County Executive, J. Ryan McMahon II, and the Onondaga County Legislature, administered by CNY Arts; and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
