Rita Deanin Abbey
Art Museum

By appointment only –

Open Thur-Sun


Plexiglass Reliefs and Maquettes

5 on display, 10 in series

Abbey diversified her art practice within the hard-edge format, adapting it to new and unexpected curvilinear forms, using opaque plexiglass sheets instead of acrylic paint. The plexiglass relief murals contain colorful, curvilinear planes in a hard-edge style. Abbey sandblasted acrylic sheets to alter the surface texture and color value. The highly reflective forms play against the sandblasted surfaces, readdressing the issues of light absorption and reflection.

Series Highlights

Crescent Cycle from Rita Deanin Abbey's plexiglass series. A black, square frame around a white background. The background is slashed by red lines and covered by an angular blue square and thin rectangle, each with sections of black checkerboard. Crescent shapes of black and yellow pop from the background.
Rita Deanin Abbey, Crescent Cycle, 1996
Celebration, a plexiglass piece done by Rita Deanin Abbey. A huge, framed piece. The frame looks aflame and encases the frenzy of shapes and movement in the piece. The piece is a mix of black, blue, yellow, and red shapes against a white background. The piece grounds the v-shaped and wavy lines, water current shapes, and triangle shapes in the repeating rectangle and black-lined background.
Rita Deanin Abbey, Celebration, 1996