Sophia Belkin uses dye painting, embroidery and textile collage to create dynamic compositions that reference natural processes. Her work is inspired by the lush, teeming, swamps in the Gulf South and the wetlands in the Mid-Atlantic. The paintings explore the interconnectedness of the environment and consider verdant futures for our ecological landscape in the face of uncertainty. Belkin earned her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012 and lives and works in Baltimore, MD. She has exhibited at Dinner Gallery, New York, NY, Ochi Gallery, Los Angeles, CA and Resort Gallery, Baltimore, MD.
Colby Caldwell tests avenues of photography as an instrument of memory. His recent work deconstructs the very elements of digital photography by abandoning the traditional matte and frame. Caldwell utilizes direct scans from nature, producing large scale images before mounting his photographs on wood forms, waxing the surface. The pieces are untamed and evoke the scale and presence of paintings. Caldwell’s work is included in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA among others. Caldwell received his BFA from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 1990 and lives and works in Asheville, NC.
Randy Shull lives in Merida, Mexico through the winters, inspired by the local and ancient use of hammocks at the core of life in the Yucatán. He composes the hand-woven hammocks on the roof of his studio, where they are painted and left to cure in the hot tropical sun. Hammocks cast the body into a sense of weightlessness offering an essential utility and a dream-state. Shull’s paintings capture fluid motion and the rare life in Merida. Shull received his BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1986. His work is included in the collections of The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA and the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY among others.