Erin Woodbrey
Thicket
Juan Arango Palacios, Josh Dihle, Anastasia Komar, Mevlana Lipp, Wen Liu, Alex McAdoo, Anna Ruth, Krzysztof Strzelecki, Ena Swansea, and Erin Woodbrey
July 11 - August 16, 2024
Gaa New York
Gaa is pleased to present Thicket, a group exhibition featuring Juan Arango Palacios, Josh Dihle, Anastasia Komar, Mevlana Lipp, Wen Liu, Alex McAdoo, Anna Ruth, Krzysztof Strzelecki, Ena Swansea, and Erin Woodbrey. The exhibition pairs a diverse range of artists whose works in painting, sculpture, printmaking, and weaving celebrate nature and the landscape as a place of shelter and refuge.
A thicket is a patch of woods often produced by a dense stand of trees, surrounded by masses of overgrown underbrush and clusters of prolific self-seeding plants. Life is abundant in this verdant, sheltered space. Teeming with secrets and stories, it is murmurous and alive. It is a place of respite and sustenance for wildlife and humans alike where one could easily pass by, and yet once discovered, a place one could find protection.
As an ecosystem, a thicket can be expanded into a metaphor for shelter and sanctuary. Forming a natural barrier, a thicket creates a sense of interiority similar to that experienced within architecture. Thickly populated by impenetrable vegetation, thickets provide cover to those who seek respite; they are spaces where things are hidden, intimate, and safe.
The artists in Thicket explore and expand this idea of a thicket through works that examine the freedom of the natural world. The pieces in the exhibition explore the experiences, activities, and emotions that play out within the lush and leafy borders of densely settled patches of vegetation. It is the stories of plants, trees, bugs, as well as the landscapes that stand behind us in moments of connection or isolation as we drive, talk, and embrace. The thicket is everything we find through touching, sensing, looking—knowledge gleaned through observing complex and intricate living systems and spaces. Together, these artists look from the overpowering to the microscopic, searching for and ultimately finding places of quiet imagination and discovery.
