May 1, 2026

On view from May 23 – July 5 , a new exhibition at Geary Contemporary in Salisbury, A Line, A Shape, A Tool, explores the possibilities of contemporary sculpture, from the conceptual and diagrammatic to the almost-figurative. Geary Contemporary will present the work of Sun You, Pooneh Maghazehe, Russell Maltz, and William Corwin in their newly expanded gallery spaces in Salisbury.

The exhibition’s title is drawn from the short story by Will Heinrich, who has envisioned a series of stories inspired by the artists’ works. In this story, he recreates an evolutionary process (think the first sequence in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) in which a humanoid creature comprehends tools, memory, beauty, and utility, and begins to produce art. Conceptual sculpture is never without its visual and aesthetic aspect, and abstract and figurative sculpture will always have one foot in conceptual considerations; you can never exclude any of these ideas no matter how hard you try.

Geary will exhibit the works in dialogue with each other, allowing the viewer to juxtapose the simple inevitability of the geometries of Russell Maltz’s wall and floor-based installations with the writhing viscerality of Pooneh Maghazehe’s composite objects, and the light and colorful yet subtly dangerous assemblages of Sun You with the heavy, brooding cast-iron Art-Brut symbolic objects of William Corwin. Heinrich’s story will act as a primer for the show, attempting to follow (in a fictionalized interpretation) the line of reasoning that evolves into each sculptural subgenre. Opening reception May 23, 4–6 pm. Geary, 14 Main St, Salisbury—geary.nyc