EXHIBITION: Coming Down to Earth

Candela Gallery’s upcoming group show, Coming Down to Earth features works by 11 artists weaving a lyrical study around the subterranean garden, both real and imagined. Artists featuring work in the exhibition include Alanna Airitam, Jasmine Clarke, Paul Guilmoth, Justine Kurland, Gita Lenz, Anne Arden McDonald, Justin James Reed, Patricia Underwood, D.M. Witman, Iwase Yoshiyuki, & Susan Worsham.

@ Jasmine Clarke

Photography has had a long history of being used as a tool to document our environment. Through a series of literal and conceptual narratives, Coming Down to Earth examines and challenges the viewer’s perception of the landscape. Through a series of cameraless processes, Anne Arden McDonald bears witness to nature's miraculous phenomenons. The botanical surveys by D.M. Witman speak to present-day climate concerns. While the lush vegetation and microscopic slides of Susan Worsham and the abstract vintage studies by Gita Lenz poetically explore the relationship between science and the photographic process. 

@ D.M. Witman

The repeated patterns in Justin James Reed’s photographs of foliage and greenery and the highly constructed and colorful mixed media works in Patricia Underwood tap into the surreal landscape in an abstract way. Alanna Airitam’s still-lives speak to colonialism and the political history of food and labor. Justine Kurlands’ dreamscapes and Iwase Yoshikyuki’s vintage prints shine a light on ritual, ownership, and the history of working communally to maintain the land. While Jasmine Clarke and Paul Guilmoths’ euphoric imagery constructs otherworldly fantasies of places that may or may not exist.

The resulting works - part documentation and part fiction - are a visual exploration of the imagined places, the passage of time, and how our perceptions of the landscape inform us. The show opens on March 4th and runs through April 23rd. There will be an opening reception Friday, March 4th, from 5 - 8 pm.

@ Susan Worsham

@ Patricia Underwood