The Colour of Form: Toni LaSelle
We are proud to announce our next exhibition - a solo presentation of work by Dorothy Antoinette (Toni) LaSelle, running from 9th June to 15th August.
Toni LaSelle (1901–2002) was a pioneering American modernist and a key figure in shaping modern art education in the United States. Strongly influenced by European movements such as the Bauhaus and Constructivism, LaSelle’s practice is defined by a rigorous and elegant exploration of colour, form, and spatial harmony. As both an artist and teacher, she played a critical role in introducing and advocating modernist ideas in America, long before they were widely embraced.
This striking show, featuring both paintings and works on paper, offers a rare opportunity to engage with LaSelle’s sophisticated abstract compositions.
We warmly invite you to experience the vision of a pioneering female American modernist, whose work resonates with the complexity and optimism of a changing world.
LaSelle’s story complicates dominant narratives of American abstraction. Her trajectory was neither provincial nor derivative; rather, it was polyphonic, shaped by transatlantic travel, interdisciplinary curiosity, and a Midwestern pragmatism that resisted aesthetic dogma. She absorbed lessons from Bonnard, Hofmann, and Moholy-Nagy, yet retained a distinct visual voice—lyrical but structured, painterly yet precise. Her own phrase, 'a state of becoming', aptly describes both her work and her ethos: restlessly experimental, perpetually unfinished, and vitally open to redefinition.
