Peri Schwartz at Gallery NAGA

Gallery NAGA present Reverberations: Fifty Years of Still Lifes, a solo exhibition of works by the late Peri Schwartz, running from April 3 through May 2, 2026, at 67 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116. An opening reception will be held on Friday, April 3, from 4 to 6 pm. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog with an essay by Cody Upton, the Executive Director of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reverberations revisits Schwartz's use of still life as a genre through drawings, paintings, monotypes, and prints, many of which were formerly part of the artist's own collection. The exhibition traces Schwartz's stylistic shifts of the genre, from the earliest studio works dating back to the 1970s in watercolor, sepia, and monochrome, to later compositional explorations of blocks, bottles, and jars, set in close proximity or far apart, to more recent, abstracted compositions of luminous jars and studio set-ups. 

Reverberations showcases the range of Schwartz's treatment of still life within the self-imposed set of subject matter limitations and the confines of her studio. Gradually, the artist shifted away from more traditional compositions of stoneware and fruit toward non-organic forms, illuminated by strong natural light and vibrantly colored liquids or subdued in sepia and monochrome. Over the years, the bottles and jars, Schwartz's preferred subject matter, moved closer together, eventually forming a vivid monolith, doubled by its own reflection, vantage point straight ahead or slightly downward. The use of the grid assumed a particular importance: far from serving as a structural tool, it became an essential part of Schwartz's compositions.

The play between abstraction and figuration is what makes Schwartz's work particularly intriguing, given that her subject was always rooted in reality. Within a span of five decades, the artist was able to create a unique pictorial language, austere in its methodology but lustrous in its delivery. Reverberations: Fifty Years of Still Lifes features the last etchings and watercolors that Schwartz made during her lifetime. Conjoined, the works in the exhibition offer a rewarding opportunity to observe and appreciate the scintillation of Schwartz's vessels throughout different time periods, series, and styles. 

Peri Schwartz’s work is included in numerous national and international collections, including Bibliothèque Nationale de France, The British Museum, The Denver Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, LACMA, The Library of Congress, The MFA Boston, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Portland Art Museum, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.