Ridgewood, New York
Group Exhibition
Under an Ancient Flood of Light, Lilies!
TempestMarcy Chevali Isa Dorvillier Rhonda Khalifeh Angélica Maria Millán Lozano "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin..if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you.. The sun falls on my head like a priestly hand—the gentleness of its blessing is almost enraging—why won’t it slap me, why won’t it push me, why won’t it force me to become better than I am." —Ariana Reines, A Sand Book "that you would actually care for each other at least that you would understand grief is distributed between you, among all your kind, for me to know you, as deep blue marks the wild scilla, white the wood violet." —Louise Glück, April "Lilies of the Valley Don't Do A Damn Thing Yet our Presents is Felt like an Anarchist Because We do in deed Exist" —Lily Bea Moor /aka/ Senga Nengudi Considered through the lens of spring light, lilies and ecstatic worship, in an environment which heightens oxytocin, as heart racingly described in Mallarmé’s A Faun’s Afternoon, the works in Under an Ancient Flood of Light, Lilies! contemplate nature’s bounty, floods both emotional and water logged, feelings both sensual and alarming, destruction, repair and being shown grace: the potential of being saved and cared for in a world bent backwards by war. Works include Marcy Chevali’s netted vessels brimming with light, like a gathering of exalted animals, amplifying each other’s delicate strength. Isa Dorvillier’s quilted friezes stitching disparate and overlapping moments from the archives; a man bleeding gas lines in Ridgewood, women carrying children across flood planes, the labors of reproduction and protection extending over each other and becoming one, and the tall, graceful phragmites, eternal watchers by the shore, abiding and blowing in the wind. Rhonda Khalifeh’s textiles, overlaid with accumulated layers of dye, time and toil, embody an effortless gestural quality whenever they visit, confidently filling the space they know well from their past lives. Angélica Maria Millán Lozano's intentionally unravelled cloths, elegant in their threadbare state, sing their secret texts interlocking in celestial loops and braids. Marcy Chevali is an artist working with themes of strength and fragility, visibility, and infinity. She arranges linear materials such as rods of glass, wire and thread into grid-like three dimensional forms. Sometimes there are forms inside of forms which relate to each other in specific ways. In other pieces a shift in materials shows a break in the contour, making it clear that different materials react differently to outside forces such as gravity, airflow and light. Marcy has a BFA from The Ohio State University and an MFA from Maine College of Art. Her work has been shown in galleries and artists’ spaces including Queens Museum of Art, Noyes Museum, Aicon Gallery, Air Gallery, and Gallery Aferro, and with organizations such as South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, ABC No Rio, and Project for an Empty Space. She has attended numerous residencies including Edward Albee Foundation, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Kimmel Harding Nelson, Urban Glass, Pittsburgh Glass Center and Willapa Bay Air. She has received grants from the Queens Council of the Arts and FST Studio Projects. Isa Dorvillier is a place-based multidisciplinary artist from Queens, NY. She researches human relationships with the urban environment through material experiments, work with public archives, and physical engagement with the landscape. Urban walking is at the center of her practice. Dorvillier invites participants to join her for walks and develop embodied connection with place. Isa is a teaching artist at Queens Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and NYC Public Schools. Dorvillier was an artist in residence at the Peter Bullough Foundation and was an apprentice at The Fabric Workshop and Museum. She received a BFA in fiber from The Maryland Institute College of Art. She is currently the Storyteller In Residence with the Newtown Creek Alliance and Melting Metropolis where she is investigating the impact of extreme heat on people who live, work, and play in the areas surrounding The Newtown Creek. Rhonda Khalifeh is a Syrian-American artist based in New York’s Hudson Valley. Khalifeh’s practice centers around textiles and spans multiple formats including site-specific installations, multi-layered assemblages, and artists books. Khalifeh received her MFA from the fiber department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017 and has been an artist in residence at SVA Bio Art Lab, Textile Arts Center, and Center for Book Arts. She published Project Z (2018) and Project Z Book II (2022) with Open Projects Press and currently self-publishes works under the imprint Z. Press. Khalifeh is a founding member of Book Arts Solidarity Network (BASN) and is on the editorial/production team for Makeready, BASN’s annual publication. Her work can be found in several public collections including the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Library, and Fine Arts Library at Harvard University. Angélica Maria Millán Lozano is an artist from Bogotá, Colombia currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She creates abstract and figurative compositions on distressed fabrics that explore the layered experience of migration, memory, and faith. Millán Lozano chooses fabrics for her work very carefully – opting for textiles that tell stories of resilience. The pre-worn fabrics reveal evidence of distress, wear and tear, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Millán Lozano received her MFA in Visual Studies at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Angélica has been a fellow at Smack Mellon, an artist in residence at Bemis Center, Ox Bow School of Art and has shown nationally at Ortega y Gasset Projects, La Salita, Equity Gallery in New York, NY, Jacob Lawrence Gallery at University of Washington in Seattle, Oregon Center for Contemporary Art (formerly Disjecta), and Nationale in Portland, OR.