Exhibited in a solo exhibition at Arlington Arts Center, The Study, and The Ethical Society in Philadelphia
‘Narrowed Plot’ features seven paintings in the ‘Firth’ series that examine a single North Philadelphia lot over time.
The large-scale works on paper are low-key ink paintings that show a shifting urban landscape, reflecting the multilayered history of my city block. They are saturated paintings that take a while to adjust for detail; they are carefully observed but loosely captured.
2016-2018
The series began with a study of a lone tree snag intertwined with a chain link fence on an unmaintained plot of land, just three doors down from my studio
As the project grew to encompass the living ecosystem of the site as it changed throughout the season, a new process was set in motion. The unused land changed hands and construction began to transform the space into a series of row homes.
Over the course of two years’ research, I’ve followed this process of gentrification in a singular case, documenting the visual changes and researching the history of this particular plot of land.
The site is specific, but the forces at work — environmental and social displacement, radical changes in land use, and the re-branding of neighborhoods — are familiar.
The tableaus question ideas -and ideals- of development and coexistence.
When viewed from the timeframe of the trees that once inhabited the land, the cycles of neglect and renewal reflect the history of the neighborhood. Before existing as the fallow site of urban, natural refuge that I first witnessed, the lot was a site of nineteenth century industry.
It was home to a bedding factory, casket hardware manufacturer, water distributor and warehouse. The additions and erasures of human impact form the palimpsest of this living city; my time here representing a small point along its trajectory.
Narrowed Plot,
a Fall Solo exhibition at Arlington Arts Center
October 13 – December 15, 2018
For the solo exhibition ‘Narrowed Plot,’ I created a site-specific installation to activate the Tiffany windows in the gallery.
A trio of hand-painted ink on mylar screens will cover and temporarily alter the historical windows. The piece, entitled ‘Variable Transmittance’, features vertical grids of color, inspired by the hues of the glass but mirroring the stickers adhering to the unfinished windows at the ‘Firth’ construction site.
It highlights the Tiffany windows’ history of displacement and mixed use, their funerary connotations, while diffusing the inherent, reflective beauty of their continued presence.
Cities Into Dust, 2024.
The Study, Philadelphia, PA
The series was recently exhibited in the four person exhibition “Cities Into Dust”
From curator, Talia Greene: “This curatorial project began as a solo show opportunity which I transformed into a collaboration between myself and three local artists: Amze Emmons, Cindy Stockton Moore, and Erik Ruin. We each explore similar subjects: changing urban landscapes; cycles of entropy, growth, destruction and renewal; and the tension between human and natural forces; and utilize research, direct observation, and speculation to create outcomes that straddle the poetic and the political.”
Publication 2024
For the exhibition, I compiled the paintings chronologically, creating an artist publication. Each detail is a 1:1 scale of the painting.
