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Up-Font: Fonts in Comtemporary Realism

Jul 30 – Aug 13, 2026

ABFA is pleased to present Up-Font: Fonts in Contemporary Realism, an exhibition centered around artwork that contains text as either its subject or a main feature. Featuring work by Charles Hartley, Tom Pfannerstill, Peter and Madeline Powell, Ray Kleinlein, A.J. Fries, Richard Heilser, Bruce Evans, Angelo Ippolito, NFN Kalyan, Benjamin M. Johnson, Stephanie Schechter, Steve Carver, Joseph Mayernik, David Edward Johnson, and Jeffery Equality Brooks, the show is an exploration of everyday fonts, with each painting containing serif, sans-serif, handwriting, and recognizable logos that are obvious to the viewer.

Typography is everywhere and yet rarely seen. It shapes how we read news, navigate cities, and recognize brands, all while remaining, by design, nearly invisible. Up-Font pulls fonts out of the background and into the frame, asking viewers to notice the letterforms they read past every day: the serif of a book title, the sans-serif of a street sign, the handwriting of a note, the unmistakable logo on a familiar package.