Love Will Return in a Different Way

In 1924, during the last year of his life, Franz Kafka supposedly encountered a little girl in a park in Berlin who was distraught, having lost her favorite doll. After searching to no avail, Kafka began writing and reciting letters to the little girl from the doll whom he imagined had “gone on a trip to see the world”. The last letter, which was found years later by the now grown woman, was tucked inside the doll on a tiny piece of paper and read, Everything you love is very likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different way. This selection of drawings is from a series very much about love, loss, and that which is so small it risks being forgotten. These drawings take their inspiration from images I want to bring back from their respective times and histories to return them to the now and to new observers. The Enlightenment philosopher Edmund Burke believed the concept of infinity could just as likely be found in a tiny seashell as in a vast landscape. Thus, the endlessness of nature exists equally in the microscopic realm. He also reasoned that beauty was rarely associated with grand and large objects, but rather almost always associated with a qualifier such as “tiny” or "little". This is especially true when we consider the realm of jewelry and diamonds. I t think of this series of drawings as living in some space between jewelry and works on paper. Their smallness invites viewers to get closer to them. The history and significance of diamonds seemed relevant to the drawings and their subject matter as well. Both graphite and diamonds are pure forms of carbon. Though one is considered a rather ubiquitous material associated with writing and drawing, and the other with love and commitment, they are chemically the same. I wanted to see what would happen when something awe-inspiring like a diamond meets a drawing on paper. The associations of love, of beauty, of reverence, and a very specific anxiety associated with excitement were all welcome. Many of these drawings are images of freedom or escape. They offer a way out, but also a way in. These drawings depict pieces of history, some of which could easily be lost to time, and others that remain somewhat iconic, but the artist’s hope is that they return to the present in a different way. —Joey Gonnella Joey Gonnella (b. Boston, MA, 1997) is a New York City-based artist whose practice centers on works on paper that explore a personal relationship to the history of images. Drawing from a private archive of found imagery and art historical references, his research-based works form constellations of meaning —connecting disparate elements of the past with the present. Gonnella received his BFA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts in 2020 and his MFA from Hunter College in 2024. His work has been exhibited in New York City at Charles Moffett Gallery, Rain Rain Gallery, and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts.

Visit

154 East Broadway

New York, NY