A groundbreaking exhibition at Art Cake in Brooklyn brings together the work of four influential abstract artists who transformed the relationship between space and painting during the 1980s and 1990s. "Painting in Space," curated by painter Michael David as part of Rail Curatorial Projects' ongoing "Singing in Unison" series, features works by Al Held, Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, and Frank Stella. The exhibition serves as both homage and examination of how these artists made radical advancements in the relationship between space and flatness, the optical and literal, and abstraction and representation.

David, who began exhibiting his own paintings in 1981, witnessed firsthand how these four artists pursued their own creative trajectories regardless of prevailing trends. During an era that celebrated figurative painting and sculpture, along with a return to conservative values in art, Held, Murray, Pfaff, and Stella presented alternative possibilities that had a profound effect on David's own work. Their relentless pursuit of innovation, even when it went against what was fashionable, ultimately led to their induction into the canon of American abstraction.

This DIY exhibition, assembled without institutional or commercial gallery support, represents each artist with two large works and two works on paper. An additional small painting by Murray is also included, with many of the smaller works coming from Pfaff's personal collection. The first revelation visitors encounter is how Murray and Pfaff demonstrated that innovation and humor were not mutually exclusive, fearlessly incorporating domestic objects into their work.

Murray's paintings "Flying Bye" (1982) and "Making It Up" (1986) exemplify this approach with their cartoon-like abstract forms. "Making It Up" has been stretched around an almost square rectangle that curls along the edges and folds over like a blanket. A graphic red rectangle breaking apart has been painted on the dark greenish-blue surface, with tubular forms emerging from the cracked red rectangle and ending in blobby pale blue clouds tinged with pink. Four segmented red tails come in from the corners, one ending in a triangle. The tension between the clarity of the forms and what they signify holds viewers' attention, creating an elusive quality that marked a pivotal point in Murray's evolution from depicting subjects like coffee cups and tables to creating more abstract, interpretively challenging paintings.

For Held and Stella, the crucial issue was how to create space in their work after Minimalism's insistence on the flatness of what Robert Ryman called "the paint plane." Both artists found ways to reintroduce Renaissance values of linear perspective into painting. Held pioneered virtual space, while Stella's innovation involved opening his paintings to literal space. Where Held and Stella removed human feeling and humor from their paintings, Pfaff and Murray restored these elements in abundance.

Held's "The Seventh Step" (1995), twice as wide as it is tall, creates the sensation of being inside a deep blue, futuristic parking garage. In the deep background is a narrow, luminous band filled with faint rectangles, while a pale greenish-yellow structure made of vertical and horizontal planes dominates the middle foreground. This shape divides the enclosed structure into two parts, serving as an obstacle that partially prevents viewers from feeling they can move through Held's space with their bodies, thereby creating an alternative world operating according to its own physics.

Pfaff's "Barcelona" (1990) evokes the rich history of the titular city's café culture by melding a table and chair together and placing them at angles to an aggregation of circular elements on the wall. The large discs allude to the uniform colors of both the men's and women's Futbol Club Barcelona teams, combining red and blue into an empowering purple alongside red. The work also pays homage to Joan Miró, with the table's turquoise, red, black, and white circles recalling Miró's mosaic on the Ramblas that welcomes visitors to the city. Pfaff's flexibility in both inspiration and execution is evident in her use of materials including steel, metal, and glass to explore subjects ranging from domesticity to foreign cities to other artists.

Stella's "Zeltweg 3x" (1982) presents a partially open, rectangular wall relief layered with corrugated aluminum pieces that recall drafting tools such as L-squares and French curves. The aluminum surfaces have been etched, painted, and drawn over with a wide range of colors. Named after the site of the first Formula One race track in Austria, the work reflects Stella's passion for racing cars by connecting the precision of drafting tools to the rigor required to maintain finely tuned race cars while evoking the curves and straight lines of a track. The top layer features a massive black arrow pointing right, reminding viewers that while race car drivers cannot deviate, artistic freedom manifests in gestural marks.

As a cohesive exhibition, "Painting in Space" raises fundamental questions about creating space in painting, particularly in work rooted in geometry and abstraction. Each artist found a distinctive approach, all identifiably different yet sharing a preference for familiar forms including rectangles, circles, planes in space, and French curves. Though all worked in Minimalism's wake, their solutions to making space in painting remain as relevant today as they were decades ago. The breathtaking ways each artist synthesized their spatial solutions with their subject matter continues to inspire and influence contemporary artists.

"Singing In Unison, Part 12: Painting In Space" continues at Art Cake, located at 214 40th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, through December 7. The exhibition demonstrates how these four iconoclastic artists forever changed the landscape of American abstract art through their fearless experimentation with space, form, and meaning.