Currently on View

Main Space
Solo Exhibition: Shelley Smith
Time Isn't After Us
Curated by Clare Britt
Opening Reception Saturday March 23rd, 2024 6-9pm
Exhibition Runs Saturday March 23rd, 2024 - Sunday May 12th, 2024

Ortega y Gasset Projects is pleased to present  Time Isn't After Us, an exhibition of new work by North Carolina-based artist Shelley Smith in the gallery’s main space. The exhibition runs from March 23rd - May 12th 2024, with a reception for the artist on Saturday, March 23rd  from 6-9pm. Time Isn't After Us, curated by OyG Co-Director  Clare Britt, is the artist’s first solo exhibition outside the Southeastern US. 

And I listened for a voice
But my heart was all I heard
-Edna St. Vincent Millay

What we’ll always have
Is something we lost
-Ocean Vuong

Time Isn’t After Us is an exhibition of new, large-scale works on cloth that overlap contemporary digital technologies with ancient textile techniques of hand embroidery and embellishment. Using original photography primarily taken during a residency at Jentel in rural Wyoming as a starting point, Time Isn’t After Us presents a reflection on death, decay, preservation, and a future both created and lost.

Artist’s Bio
Shelley Smith is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in her hometown of Raleigh, NC. Works on cloth serve as the foundation of her practice, which overlaps contemporary digital technologies with ancient techniques of hand embroidery and fabric manipulation to produce otherworldly compositions from otherwise mundane, overlooked moments found in the natural world. Smith holds a Master of Art and Design with a concentration in Fibers and Surface Design from North Carolina State University (2016), and has exhibited work at various spaces in the Southeastern US. Since 2016, Shelley Smith has advocated for her local art community through her work at Anchorlight, where she is the Co-Founder and Director.

Curator Bios:
Clare Britt (She/her) joined OyG Projects in 2013 as a founding co-director. She lives and works in Chicago as a freelance photographer creating portraits and working with cultural institutions. She curated the first solo exhibition of photographic work with Chicago artist Kelly Kaczynski Yes; Or As If. She co curated the group exhibition Code Switch with co-director Lauren Whearty, curated the group show Shadow of the Gradient, and curated the exhibition entitled Apparitions with artist Alicia Smith. Clare has been instrumental in creating virtual content for the gallery including starting the YouTube Channel and creating content for the virtual space.  She spearheaded Rendezvous, an interactive virtual experience that serves as a platform for creative exchange between artists.

The Skirt
Solo Exhibition: Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson
Stillness is The Move
Curated by Clare Britt
Opening Reception Saturday March 23rd. 2024 6-9pm
Exhibition Runs Saturday March 23rd, 2024 - Sunday May 12th, 2024

Ortega y Gasset Projects is pleased to present Stillness is the Move, an exhibition of recent work by North Carolina-based artists Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson in the The Skirt. The exhibition runs from March 23rd - May 12th  2024, with a reception for the artist on Saturday, March 23rd  from 6-9pm. Stillness is the Move is curated by OyG Co-Director Clare Britt. 

Long time collaborators Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson paint fantastical ecofeminist narratives in Stillness is the Move. Their paintings conjure precarious choreographies between women and wilderness, perilous partnerships that only exist because they are frozen on the surface of the canvas. 

A spooky humor surprises viewers into playful reimaginings of human-nature relationships. Are the subjects in these paintings friend or foe? In harmony or conflict? The raw materials of these stories (a spider, a web, a rock, a snail, a woman, the moon…) combine and recombine. The paintings resist a singular interpretation of what happens next, encouraging spectators to remain open to multiple conflicting narratives. 

Fluorescent colors and crisp lines contrast with mushy grays and muted hues, highlighting the artificial stillness of the scenes. A stone skipper stands frozen mid-throw for so long that a spider builds its web in the crook of her arm. These paintings delight in their own immobility, poking fun at their ‘timeless’ medium, while also contemplating the relative longevity of a skipped stone, a spider’s web, a sunrise, a lifetime, and a rock’s lifetime.

Artist’s Bio
Geddes Levenson and Annie Blazejack both grew up in Miami, FL. Their collaborative art practice grew organically from their childhood friendship. In 2013, while attending separate graduate schools, they formalized this collaboration and have been creating and showing work exclusively as a duo ever since. In their paintings and installations, they explore the relationship between humans and ecosystems as climate change becomes increasingly inevitable. Blazejack received her MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine arts, Boston/ Tufts University in 2013, and Levenson received her MFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY in 2014. Notably, Blazejack and Levenson have installed solo shows at Lump Projects, Raleigh NC; Anchorlight, Raleigh, NC; The Carrack, Durham, NC; The Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL; Placeholder Gallery, Miami, FL; and The White Page Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. They have also shown at The National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA; The Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh, NC; Locust Projects, Miami, FL; and Norte Maar Art Space, Brooklyn, NY.