NEW YORK, NY.- Louis K. Meisel Gallery announces Stamos / Ramos, an exhibition that brings together works by Abstract Expressionist painter Theodoros Stamos and Pop Artist Mel Ramos. Comprised almost entirely from Louis and Susan Meisel’s personal collection, these paintings have rarely been seen by the public. The exhibition includes works from some of the prime periods of each artist’s career juxtaposing the two major post-war art movements they represented.

A Greek American painter, Theodoros Stamos was the youngest member of the “Irascibles”—a group of 18 artists (Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko among them) that played a key role in establishing Abstract Expressionism. This collection of works by Stamos is a quintessential example of this new radical style born in the U.S. in the 1940s. Stamos turned to color as his main vehicle of expression, embracing abstract forms to convey his emotional state. Striving to encapsulate the essence of nature, these canvases explore the effects of color relationships and texture through gestural brushwork characteristic of the movement.

Born in California, Mel Ramos was a prominent figure of the American Pop Art movement which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a reaction to Abstract Expressionism. In contrast to the highbrow tendencies associated with Abstract Expressionism, Pop artists introduced a lighter, often ironic approach that drew inspiration from mass culture. Produced in the 1960s, Ramos’s comic book heroines and female nudes, which were coupled with branded objects, have become his signature body of work. Playfully named and rendered in bold hues, these paintings borrow imagery from comic strips and advertisements blurring the lines between high and low culture.

Stamos / Ramos presents the two artists’ works alongside one another to emphasize the inherent connection between the radically different artistic movements rather than putting them at odds with each other. A parallel display highlights the creative dialogue that gave impetus to the development of new art forms which further pushed artistic boundaries in the second half of the 20th century.