Mongerson Gallery deals in 19th and 20th century art including Surrealists Gertrude Abercrombie and Julia Thecla; Regionalists including Thomas Hart Benton, William Ashby McCloy and Robert Hodgell; American Modernism including Georgia O’Keeffe; and Detroit Black Arts Movement artists Charles McGee and Harold Neal. In addition, Mongerson Gallery continues to offer paintings and sculpture from the United States’ westward expansion, including works by Frederic Remington, Ernest Blumenschein, Charles Marion Russell, Thomas Moran, and W. R. Leigh. The gallery is happy to assist private clients by consulting on fine art appraisals, auction services, collections development and management, and authentication.
Image: Frederic Remington (1861-1909), The Bronco Buster
Mongerson Gallery was pleased to host Tightwire: The Work of Harold Neal, a private exhibition showcasing a collection of Neal’s paintings spanning much of his career. Harold Neal (1924-1996) was a crucial figure in the Detroit Black Arts Movement. His paintings reflect both the beauty and tribulations of his life, illustrating the complexities of existence as a Black man in the United States. Neal remains one of the most important artists of twentieth century Detroit, with his work being shown this past summer at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.
The exhibit gave a wide audience the opportunity to see Neal’s work up close in a more vibrant setting than the traditional white box gallery. Mongerson Gallery partnered with Cosentino City Chicago, Alexis Goettsch Photography, and Regiment Securities for the one-night event. This was a fantastic occasion to honor Neal's legacy, and we were so happy his family could join us to celebrate.
The gallery is open by appointment only.
Image: Harold Neal, Untitled (Man with Scales), Oil on board, 48 x 36 inches.
Mongerson Gallery is thrilled to present Space Travelers, a solo exhibition of works by the Chicago Surrealist artist Julia Thecla (1896-1973).
Once described as “the mystery girl of Chicago art,” Thecla was known for her dreamlike compositions featuring a world of fairies, dancers, animals, and sprites rendered in her signature jewel-toned blues. Space Travelers invites viewers into Thecla’s radiant inner cosmos — an imaginative, escapist world that feels both fantastical and uncannily intimate.
This one-night exhibition and reception will take place on June 11, 5:30-7:30 p.m., with remarks at 6:15pm, at Expansive Superior, 405 W. Superior St., on the 7th floor.
Julia Thecla Connell was born in Delavan, Illinois, and developed an early passion for art. She attended Illinois State University in Normal for a summer before relocating to Chicago in 1920 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). To support herself, she worked in art and antique restoration. During the Great Depression, she contributed to the Works Progress Administration’s \"easel division.\"
Thecla began to gain national recognition for her work in the 1940s, with a notable exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943. That same year, she was included in Peggy Guggenheim's Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York. She was connected to artists like Ivan Albright and Gertrude Abercrombie and became part of Chicago’s surrealist movement, producing works that were both haunting and whimsical. Active in Chicago’s artistic circles during the 1940s, her popularity waned in the 1950s as abstraction took center stage in the art world. Thecla died in relative obscurity in Chicago in 1973.
Image: Julia Thecla, Hey Diddle Diddle, Oil on canvas board, 11.5 x 13 inches.
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