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It All Starts With a Rose In a Diverse Multimedia Show in Brooklyn

A group show focusing on painstaking artistry asks, “Is it romance that has changed, or craft?”
VR Experience Option 1-Date Night, 2016, Sophia Narrett. Embroidery thread, fabric, and aluminum, 19.5 x 40 in. Images courtesy the artists and 315 Gallery

One of the main tropes of the digital age is how an increasing amount of interconnectedness has made tech-savvy humans settle into an opposite effect: isolation. Working with concepts of courtship and affection in an increasingly less “social” era, a multimedia gallery show in Brookyln revolves around the classically, romantic talisman of a rose.

The group show It All Started With a Rose includes eight artists whose artistry and dedication to their work is so all-consuming, they’ve reignited the idea of "a connection," specifically to their crafts. The artists' relationships and dedications to ceramic art, woodwork, portraiture, among other pursuits, turns the raw, unplugged passion to create into an artform itself.

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Jack Barrett, 315 Gallery's director shares with The Creators how each of "the artists involved in the show are very much entrenched in their craft, and the intimacy that comes from working with their hands is ever-present." Barrett continues, "It's a show about intimacy and craft, …it's a show about longing. Longing for intimacy with someone, or something."

Untitled, 2016, Elizabeth Jaeger. Ceramic vase, 9.5 x 11.25 x 5.5 in. Pedestal: 49 3⁄8 x 12 x 10 in.

Detail view of Elizbeth Jaeger's ceramic vase

Detail views of Sophia Narett's VR Experience Option 1-Date Night

Lonely Days, 2016, Lee Maida. Pigment stick, watercolor, charcoal, and glazed ceramic on inkjet print, 43.75 x 31 x 1 in.

Detail view of Lee Maida's Lonely Days

Security Days, 2013, Liz Englander. Acrylic on wood, papier mâché, 22 x 16 x 2 in.

Gallery views of It Started With a Rose

A description of the show wraps up the warm and meditative nature of the exhibit: “The deep loneliness cultivated by digital culture arguably has enhanced our desire to seek comfort in objects that remind us of sensuality.”

It All Started With a Rose is on view from October 15—November 13, 2016 at 315 Gallery in Brooklyn; its curation effort was organized by Cecilia Salama. Learn more about the show, here.

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