UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Upcoming Exhibitions

Benjamin Duke, Artemis Herber, and Paloma Vianey March 8– March 30, 2025. The opening reception is Friday, March 7 (“First Friday”), 6 to 8 p.m


Benjamin Duke
Chance Factor

Chance Factor is a painting exhibition that bridges the monumental and the mundane, questioning how history lingers in the quiet, unassuming moments of daily life. The work explores themes of survival, complicity, and human folly, weaving together historical echoes with mundane contemporary experience. Drawing on Heidegger’s concept of “thrownness”—the idea that individuals are born into historical and cultural circumstances beyond their control—and Lefebvre’s critique of everyday life, the project examines how personal and collective histories shape our perceptions, often in ways we fail to recognize. At the heart of the exhibition is a tension between the past and present, where historical events are reimagined through surreal, theatrical compositions. Chance Factor highlights the ways in which historical forces are not just distant, grand narratives but are embedded in our daily lives, encouraging reflection on how we navigate time, identity, and the unseen forces that shape our existence.

In my paintings, I explore the intersection of history, myth, and personal narrative, asking the question, "Is this the way the world is, or the way we imagine it to be?" My work draws upon a rich tapestry of historical events, literary references, and cultural symbols, reimagining them through a lens of imaginative realism. Each painting serves as a stage where characters—real and fictional—interact in a world that is both familiar and uncanny. Blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, I seek to create a visual language that challenges conventional perceptions of reality and invites viewers to reconsider the stories we tell ourselves. An exploration of narrative complexity, where every image is a dense, layered composition that reflects the fragmented nature of memory and experience. Through this process, I aim to engage viewers in a dialogue about the fluidity of history and the power of imagination.

Benjamin Duke is an accomplished painter whose work delves into the intersections of history, mythology, and personal narrative through imaginative realism. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting, in 2006. Duke's paintings, characterized by their complex narratives and rich symbolism, have been featured in numerous national and international exhibitions. Notable solo shows include exhibitions at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Indiana University East, and the Cressman Center Gallery at the University of Louisville. His recent work continues to receive recognition, with upcoming solo exhibitions at Buckham Gallery in Flint, MI, and Covington Gallery at Radford University Art Museum. Duke also engages in public art, having completed murals in Lansing, MI, and Fort Wayne, IN.


Artemis Herber
Danger Zones: Beyond the Past

Danger Zones: Beyond the Past is an immersive installation by Artemis Herber that examines the intersection of power, memory, and time in shaping the future of our shared planet. The exhibition explores the lasting consequences of human intervention in the environment, prompting reflection on our collective ecological impact.

Combining selections from Herber’s Danger Zones series with Recollection, the installation evokes the aesthetics of Columbaria—compartmentalized spaces for urns—creating a contemplative environment where fragmented landscapes and human forms intertwine. The sculptural works from Danger Zones, developed through collaborative performance and material experimentation, serve as stark reminders of environmental fragility and the remnants of human presence in an altered world.

By integrating deep-time materials such as cardboard, coal, marble dust, and repurposed industrial elements, Danger Zones: Beyond the Past questions the Anthropocene’s irreversible transformations and reimagines our relationship with the natural world, offering a space for reflection and speculative futures.

I examine where we currently stand—on the precipice of collapse. Humans have reshaped the world, rendering it fragile, with signs of degradation visible at every turn. My work reflects this reality, utilizing materials sourced from deep time, industrial processes, and environmental extraction.

My artistic practice fuses mythology, geology, and environmental concerns, revealing how ancient narratives re-emerge in contemporary crises. By incorporating geological materials and myths such as Gaia, Mnemosyne, and Artemis, my sculptures and paintings embody a layered history of human intervention.

Through my Danger Zones series, I investigate spaces of transformation and tension—where destruction and resilience coexist. My process incorporates performative elements, casting body parts into reformed landscapes, leaving behind hollowed traces of existence. These hybrid configurations serve as cautionary monuments to the Anthropocene, urging us to reconsider our relationship with the environment and to confront the deep entanglements of memory, time, and ecological change.

Artemis Herber is a German-Greek, US-based artist working at the intersection of sculpture, painting, and environmental inquiry. Herber’s large-scale installations explore the Anthropocene, integrating deep-time materials and industrial remnants to examine the entangled histories of human intervention, land use, and myth.

Herber has exhibited internationally in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece. Notable exhibitions include the Buffalo AKG Museum (NY), the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center (Washington, DC), the San Jose Museum of Art (CA), the Goethe-Institut (Washington, DC), and the Spartanburg Art Museum (SC).

Her research within polit-myth and experimental geography has been deepened through residencies at the Rensing Center (SC), theCoLAB (London), the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, and the Delphi Residency (Greece). Through her hybrid sculptural works, Herber investigates the precarious balance between ecological fragility and human presence in reformed landscapes.


Paloma Vianey
Don’t Zip Me Up

Through Don’t Zip Me Up, Paloma Vianey seeks to challenge common misconceptions about her birthplace and hometown, Ciudad Juarez, which from 2008 to 2012 was widely labeled as, “the most dangerous city in the world.” While crime and violence has drastically decreased, the city is still regarded as unsafe by native Mexicans and foreigners alike. Vianey attempts to destigmatize Ciudad Juarez by depicting its vernacular landscape. She presents the city not as the epicenter of cartel related violence, as depicted in literature and film, but as a lived community. By providing each work with a canvas chamarra (Mexican Spanish word for jacket), Vianey personifies the city, affording it warmth and dignity.

As an artist from the U.S.-Mexico border, I explore narratives about my home city, Ciudad Juárez, and its geographical, political, and cultural circumstances. I began painting during my teenage years when Juarez’s violence peaked. As the city flooded with violence, painting became a cathartic activity that gave me a sense of freedom I had never experienced. Since then, I have been using art as a visual language for social justice. I also narrate my experience of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every day for years, exposing the realities of this barrier aggressively dividing the North American landscape. With the paintbrush, I explore alternative processes of painting and experiment with the addition of symbolic materials. Through historical, photographical, and anecdotal references, I create paintings that provide both care and reflection to Juárez and the border. Observing painting as an act of care, I attempt to portray the resilience of this city where 1.6 million citizens live.

Paloma Vianey is an interdisciplinary artist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico based in Washington DC. She earned a BA in Art History from UT El Paso and an MFA from Cornell University. She has received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (2020, 2021, 2023), the National Fund of the Arts in Mexico (2020), and a fellowship from The Phillips Collection (2023). In 2018 Vianey realized a large-scale public art installation (22 ft x 70 ft) on the Americas-Cordova International Bridge along the U.S.-Mexico border. She has been awarded residences at Fundación Antonio Gala in Spain and The Studios of Key West, Florida. Vianey has exhibited her work at El Paso Museum of Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, the Antonio Gala Foundation, Jack Hanley Gallery, the Mexican Consulate at El Paso Texas, the Archeology and History Museum of El Chamizal in Ciudad Juárez, and others.


Image Credits

Benjamin Duke, In the land of Nod: The fearful tale of the Essex, 2024, oil on canvas 55 x 56 in; Artemis Herber, Starless Rivers, 2023, acrylic and mixed media on corrugated cardboard, 65 x 24” in (boards each 84 x 24 in); Paloma Vianey, Chamarra no. 6: Tortillería, 40 in x 30 in, oil on canvas and zipper.

 

 

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