Phantom Body
Gloria's Project Space, New York, NY
Phantom Body brings together contemporary women-identifying artists who invoke ideas of soft power, psychic space, and embodied memory. These works are not only representations of bodies but also traces of what remains after rupture, after silence, and after erasure. Borrowing from the medical phenomenon of phantom limb syndrome — the sensation of presence despite absence — the title becomes a metaphor for emotional and political haunting.
The works in this exhibition whisper, mend, and reclaim. They speak through mark, thread, and gesture. Each piece is an act of self-repair, a testament to interior strength, and a response to what has been lost, denied, and fragmented — yet still felt. At a time when bodily autonomy and the rights of women, queer and trans people, and other marginalized communities are being stripped away, Phantom Body offers a quiet but unyielding refusal. It honors bodily care as resistance, absence as presence, and fragility as force.
Artists in the exhibition include Adina Andrus, Alissa Polan, Carol Paik, Caroline Heffron, Christy E. O'Connor, Diana Jean Puglisi, Jennifer Tazewell Mawby, Jessica Soininen-Eddis, LaThoriel Badenhausen, Melanie Brewster, and Tina Lam.
Press Release
If They Told You, Would You Listen?
Karen and Ted Koskores Gallery at Thayer Academy, Braintree, MA
At the heart of If They Told You, Would You Listen? is a deeply personal story—the legacy of Destiny Palmer’s grandmother, whose unfinished quilt serves as the exhibition’s centerpiece. A tribute to the artist’s first creative influence, this piece connects the act of listening to a powerful, often unseen, lineage of artistry. In Palmer’s words, “She likely never saw herself as an artist, yet she was the first person I watched draw.”
The exhibition challenges traditional notions of listening, posing critical questions about power, privilege, history, and our willingness to confront uncomfortable truths. It explores what it means to truly listen—to histories, to silences, and to the narratives that push us beyond our comfort zones. Through this lens, the participating artists create spaces of inquiry, tension, and affirmation. Their works span a range of perspectives, urging viewers to confront biases, assumptions, and blind spots. Ultimately, the exhibition reflects the universal and ongoing struggle to hear and understand one another, especially in moments of division.
Featuring artists Adria Arch, Alana Fitzgerald, Alaina Mahoney, Cathy Della Lucia, Cicely Carew, Courtney Stock, Cristina Victor, Destiny Palmer, Diana Jean Puglisi, Ife Franklin, Janet Loren Hill, Ja’Hari Ortega, Jay Katelansky, Kate Clements, Kristine Rumman, Lauren Comerato, Loretta Park, Maria Molteni, Marla McLeod, Mia Cross, Nafis White, Perla Mabel, Ruthena Tart, Samantha Fields, Sarah Sabino, and Yoon Jee Kwak and curated by Destiny Palmer
PANDORA:Metamorphosis of Curiosity
MassArt x SOWA, Boston, MA
PANDORA explores the transformative power of curiosity, drawing parallels between the myth of Pandora and the human quest for knowledge. The exhibition showcases eight artists whose works depict the evolution and phases of curiosity (innocence, discovery, caution, reflection, wisdom), emphasizing the role of myth-making in shaping our understanding of the consequences of unchecked exploration. By combining scientific themes with artistic expression, PANDORA highlights the delicate balance between discovery and responsibility, inviting viewers to reflect on the Pandora’s Box within themselves.
The exhibiting artists employ processes that capture both the emotional and intellectual dimensions of curiosity’s metamorphosis. This symbiotic relationship provokes contemplation on the delicate balance between the mythical and the scientific in shaping our worldviews. Each work contributes to a narrative landscape within the gallery, highlighting the diversity in artistic expression and interpretation and transporting the audience to a space of engagement and reflection about the complexities of human curiosity.
Symbolic geometries, storytelling, and the phenomenological, intertwined with scientific motifs, explore physical nature and psyche, illustrating the enduring power of myth to shape our understanding of the ramifications tied to exploration. By showcasing this amalgamation of art and science, Pandora: Metamorphosis of Curiosity fosters a nuanced dialogue about the role of myth in framing our approach to scientific inquiry and the responsibilities entwined with unveiling the mysteries of the Universe.
Curated by Jessica Tawczynski. Featuring artists: Roya Amigh, Diana Jean Puglisi, Samnang Riebe, Eileen Ryan, Will Suglia, Jessica Tawczynski, Elizabeth Thach, Michael Zachary.
Ria x Gallery, Montclair, NJ
Mika Cali, Kim Hill, and Diana Jean Puglisi weave together personal and discovered histories through the works on view in Storytell-her (storytell-HER). Viewers are invited to explore narrative expression through textile-based works, both functional and nonfunctional, that utilize various techniques challenging cultural and social norms.
Curate by Ria Mulvey. Exhibiting artists: Mika Cali, Kim Hill, Diana Jean Puglisi.
Soft Shoulder
Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge, MA
Organic, unstructured, and non-conforming, Soft Shoulder artists present a flexible address of surface and structure. Engaged in informal and off-kilter strategies, the non-representational works are relational and familiar. Ambiguous and consciously awkward, the work derails notions of finished, fixed or known, on purpose — always a little off-road, yet en route. Like the unpaved patch of dirt alongside the highway where macadam meets gravel loose and soft and the traveller slows to a stop, Soft Shoulder posits the state of in-between, at the interchange of becoming and spent with an emphasis on sensate materiality.
Common to all, is a prioritized sense of touch, which lends an empathic and anthropomorphized read to the work through palpably made processes. In each, a sense of presence is evoked, a posture assumed, a manner of being evoked. Draped, stuffed, slumped, or stacked, the action is performative and humorous in a forlorn sort of way. From socks to stones, shop rags to tarps, Soft Shoulder artists are invested in an expanded range of hybrid craft, fiber, painterly, and sculptural practices combining traditional and everyday materials to ends fearless, vulnerable, and decidedly human.
Curated by Cathleen Daley.
Exhibiting Artists: Liza Bingham, Ed Christie, Samantha Fields, Valérie Gobeil, Hilde-Kari Guttormsen, Meg Lipke, Diana Jean Puglisi, Josh Richards, Jason Rolf
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