In the winter of 2026, the Neubauer Collegium will host The Joy of Painting, the first institutional exhibition in the U.S. of Norwegian artist Fredrik Værslev. The show will bring together eight large-scale paintings, each representing a distinct body of work and conceived as an exercise in geometric abstraction. One giant painting reduces the Japanese flag to color and form, for instance; another calls to mind a speckled stretch of sunshade. A scrunched-up bit of canvas resembles a parted curtain, and a work from Værslev's "Terrazzo" series invokes the spirit of Jackson Pollock. Taken as a whole, the paintings on view showcase Værslev’s systematic interrogation of abstract art as well as the many methods through which abstraction can be produced. The rigor of Værslev’s formal language notwithstanding, the exhibition is a heartfelt homage to the pleasures of making one’s mark, paintbrush and palette in hand.

The Neubauer Collegium gratefully acknowledges the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its generous support of this exhibition in partnership with the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York City. Additional programming support has been provided by the UChicago Division of the Arts & Humanities through the Wigeland Fund.