Beauty Reigns features the work of 13 emerging and mid-career abstract painters, working in studios across the United States. The exhibition celebrates the exoticism, exuberance and optimism found in the artists’ work. Among the characteristics these artists share are high-key color, layered surface imagery, use of overall and repeated patterns, stylized motifs and a tension between melancholy and the sublime.

Beauty Reigns, which is organized by Rene Paul Barilleaux for the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, features works by artists both national and international perspectives. With the exception of Beatriz Milhazes, who lives in Brazil, the artists—who span two generations—work in communities across the United States. They span two generations and several include elements of visual vocabularies they were introduced to in other countries in their distinctive canvases.