Schedule of events:

4:00 p.m.: Open to the public; bar and nibbles at Wilson Museum (no food or beverages in the galleries, please)
4:30-5:30 p.m.: Exhibition talks at Wilson (chairs provided)
5:00-7:00 p.m.: Music by Shermtone at Yester House
5:30-7:00 p.m.: Dessert provided, and mingling with the solo artists at Yester House

Into the Abstract brings together the works of Paul Gruhler and Neha Vedpathak, two artists separated by generations but united in their dedication to abstraction. For over six decades, Gruhler has sought order and clarity through geometric compositions, a practice that gained new significance following his late-life diagnosis of severe dyslexia. Vedpathak found confidence in abstraction early in her career, embracing it as a space for exploration and self-expression.

At the heart of both artists’ processes is a commitment to slowness and intentionality. Into the Abstract considers how Gruhler’s methodical layering of color and Vedpathak’s time-intensive plucking technique challenge contemporary culture’s fixation on speed and output.

Their works also share formal affinities with minimalism—structured lines, color fields, and an interplay of negative space—while drawing from distinct influences. These visual connections are expanded through the addition of national loans from the Art Bridges Foundation by artists Sam Gilliam, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Alice Trumbull Mason.

Into the Abstract is curated by Alison Crites. This exhibition is made possible with the generous support of the Art Bridges Foundation and Wolf Kahn Foundation.

Paul Gruhler, born 1941 and raised in Queens, NY, has lived and worked in Vermont since the early 1990s. Throughout his 60-year career, he has focused on geomatic abstraction in painting, drawings, collage, and sculpture through the deliberate arrangement of color, line, texture, and scale. Gruhler had his first exhibition of abstract paintings in New York City in 1965 at the DeMena Gallery. Subsequently, he has shown his work in galleries and museums in Mexico City, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States.

Neha Vedpathak, born 1982 in Pune, India, moved to the United States in 2007, where she’s lived in Chicago, Phoenix, and Detroit. Vedpathak was primarily a painter until 2009, when she invented a rigorous technique called “plucking” where she separates the fibers of Japanese handmade paper using a tiny pushpin before painting and collaging it. Widely shown in the United States, Europe, India, and Singapore, she has been featured in multiple museums and institutions. Vedpathak has also received numerous awards and residencies.