5 Standout Shows at Small Galleries to Discover This June
In this monthly roundup, we shine the spotlight on five stellar exhibitions taking place at small and rising galleries in five cities worldwide.
Jahnne Pasco-White, installation view of “mmms” at STATION, Mebourne, 2023. Courtesy of STATION.
In soft, color-soaked textiles, Australian artist Jahnne Pasco-White develops her own twist on abstraction that considers the relationship between people and the environment. The show’s title, “mmms,” refers to a slew of natural materials, beings, and phenomena that each begin with the letter “m”—such as mammals, the Milky Way, microbes, and mush, to name a few.
Each work is a mélange of various recycled and found materials, from natural dyes, rose petals, and earth, to reclaimed acrylics and plant-based crayons. Materially and conceptually, these airy, thoughtfully constructed works embody the artist’s environmental concerns, as well as the care she puts into process, experimentation, color, and markmaking.
In the fresh paintings of “Hopscotch” at tastemaking London gallery Soho Revue, rising painter Anne Carney Raines cleverly comingles an unusual mix of references—such as North American quilting traditions, skate parks, and illuminated manuscripts—to wondrous effect. Her lush, luminous canvases offer up crisp walls of patchwork patterns that give way to swathes of landscape; and stage-like scenarios with imposing tree trunks that reflect the artist’s background in scenic painting. Central to all this worldbuilding is dizzying configurations of ramps and platforms that recall the architecture of skate parks. The title “Hopscotch” alludes to the playfulness of the work, as well as the palpable rhythm that runs through it.
The Nashville-born, London-based artist, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2021, is on a promising trajectory: Last year she had a solo show at Wilder Gallery; was included in group shows at Soho Revue and Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery; and featured in the exhibition “New Contemporaries 2021” at South London Gallery.
Paul Robas, installation view of “No time to explain” at Solito Gallery, Naples, Italy, 2023. Courtesy of Solito Gallery.
Romanian artist Paul Robas inaugurates Naples gallery Solito Gallery’s new single-artist program SOLITO with “No time to explain,” a show of uncanny figurative paintings. Marking Robas’s debut show in Italy, the paintings are born from his observations and memories, while reflecting on the social, political, and cultural issues of the present.
Taken together, these works, with their skewed portrayals of anxious faces and foreboding vignettes—depicting a glimmering scissor poised to cut; an hourglass running out of sand; a tiny waist squeezed into a belt—feel like representations of our warped reality. Painted in a muted palette of pinks, purples, beiges, and blues, with Robas’s distinctive use of acrylic on wood, the works are strange, enticing, and roiling with emotion. The artist does well to encapsulate the feeling of this moment in time.
“Everyone We Know Is Here”
Fine Arts Work Center, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts
June 2–Aug. 25
“Everyone We Know Is Here” honors the legacy of the Provincetown-based Fine Arts Work Center’s esteemed fellowship program, which has welcomed prominent emerging artists for more than 50 years. Curated by the beloved painter Heidi Hahn (who was a visual art fellow there in 2014), the group show features works by over 20 former fellows—including Jane Corrigan, Candice Lin, Bridget Mullen, and Kambui Olujimi—and channels the creativity and talent that the program inspires. A portion of proceeds from works sold will support the fellowship program.
“This is a curatorial effort to bring together the essence of making in a very particular environment,” Hahn wrote in a statement. “I wanted to bring all different kinds of artists together in honor of a place so devoted to its artists. A sort of love letter if you will.”
Katharina Stadler’s solo show “HAPPY-GO-LUCKY” presents the artist’s abstract, color-soaked paintings that are made from stitched-together swathes of painted cotton. These refreshing works seem to sit at the intersection of color-field painting, quiltmaking, and collage, resulting in technically impressive, aesthetically striking compositions. The artist’s fine technique and facility with color result in compelling works that elicit emotions that envelop the viewer. Depending on the work, it might be joy and excitement or peace and tranquility. The works certainly set forth a novel approach to abstract painting.
Stadler is a 2021 graduate of the prestigious Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she was a student of Thomas Scheibitz. She and four classmates were featured in a group show, “Accurate Glitch,” at Jarmuschek + Partner last year, and “HAPPY-GO-LUCKY” marks her first solo show at the gallery.
