That Was Then

Picture Theory is pleased to present That Was Then, a two-person exhibition featuring Bryony Rose and Molly Wasielewski, curated by Rebecca Polanzke. Marking the New York debut of both artists, the exhibition brings together ceramic and textile-based practices that consider memory through moments of everyday life. Bryony Rose uses ceramic tile to draw from autobiographical and local imagery connected to her adolescence in rural Scotland. Her recent works focus on the roadside turnout, regionally referred to as a “lay-by,” as a site of pause within the landscape. Often encountered during daily travel, these spaces reveal details that might otherwise go unnoticed. Rose combines imagery of roadside flora with traces of movement such as tire marks and hubcaps, placing contemporary visual language in conversation with traditional Scottish decorative motifs. Through hand-beaded miniature tapestries, Molly Wasielewski explores memory through the transformation of images. Working from photographs sourced from public archives, she translates each image into beadwork, allowing forms to blur and shift through process. Recurring motifs including birds, cages, and cocoons function as carriers of personal association rather than fixed narrative. Through this slow translation from photograph to object, Wasielewski’s works move closer to mementos than representations.