Draft:Rhia Hurt

Hurt works in painting, collage, and sculpture, drawing on color field abstraction and material experimentation. Writing in POVarts in 2022, Jennifer A. González, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, described the Balancing Act series as conveying "profound serenity" alongside urgency about planetary climate change, with paint surfaces that evoke the geological qualities of earth, water, and fire.^[1] Hurt works with a range of materials including silk, synthetic watercolor paper, wire, canvas, handmade watercolor, and acrylic paint. Sharon Butler, writing in Two Coats of Paint in 2019, described Hurt as developing "a visual language rooted in ephemeral forms and transparency," noting her engagement with color, layered form, and what Butler characterized as "the mystery of the things we cannot see."^[2] She has described her process as "deconstructed paint," layering pigments to build tactile geological surfaces.^[3]

She is an elected member of American Abstract Artists, an organization founded in 1936.^[4]

Hurt's work was included in Blurring Boundaries: The Women of American Abstract Artists, 1936–Present, a traveling group exhibition organized by the Clara M. Eagle Gallery at Murray State University and the Ewing Gallery at the University of Tennessee, toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.^[5] The exhibition traveled to eight venues between 2020 and 2023, including the South Bend Museum of Art; the Baker Museum, Naples, Florida; the Freedman Gallery at Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania; the LSU Museum of Art; the California Center for the Arts, Escondido; and the Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut, where it was reviewed by Christopher Arnott in the Hartford Courant.^[6] Hurt's work Pretty in Peach (2018) was selected as one of five representative works featured in International Arts & Artists' promotional materials for the exhibition.^[5] Two works are held in the permanent collection of the Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture, University of Tennessee: Pretty in Peach (2018), gifted by the artist,^[7] and Night Sea (2019), an archival inkjet print gifted by American Abstract Artists.^[8]

Her work was included in A Fractured Sigh, a group exhibition at BravinLee Programs in Chelsea, New York, in December 2020, which La Voce di New York described as an exhibition reflecting on artistic practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[9]

Solo exhibitions include Stair Gazing: Star Bursts, a site-specific installation in the Main Stairwell of the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ (January 19 – March 19, 2017), in which Hurt responded to the architecture with organically-shaped stretched canvases painted with washes of color;^[10][11] New Paintings: Rhia Hurt at André Zarre Fine Arts, Chelsea, New York (2016) — a gallery whose roster of more than eighty solo artists was documented in The New Criterion following Zarre's death in 2020, which lists Hurt among them;^[12][13] and Seeing Through at Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn (2019).^[2][14]

Her work Glacial Surge (2025) was featured in "Hot Off the Walls: Art to Go!", a group exhibition at Pajaro Valley Arts, Watsonville, California (March–May 2026), covered by The Pajaronian.^[15]

Trestle Art Space was co-founded in Brooklyn in 2012 by Hurt and artists including Mary Negro, Rachel Whitney, Abigail Groff, Katerina Lanfranco, and Ajit Kumar.^[16] The organization provided studio space, exhibitions, educational programs, an artist-in-residence program, and professional development opportunities for emerging and mid-career artists. Hyperallergic and Two Coats of Paint covered exhibitions held at the gallery.^[17][18]

The organization relocated from Gowanus to 850 Third Avenue in 2016, a move reported by Bklyner, which noted the new space offered 15,000 square feet including 36 private studios.^[16] Hurt served as Executive Director from 2010 to 2019. Following the closure of the Third Avenue location, Trestle Art Space continued to operate studios and project space at a Greenwood location on 18th Street.^[19]

Hurt has presented at national arts conferences on topics related to artist-run spaces and curatorial practice. In 2019, she was a panelist on "Alternative Models: Artist-run Galleries and Curatorial Collectives" at the College Art Association Annual Conference, held at the New York Hilton Midtown, a session organized under the Services to Artists Committee program.^[20]