Elijah Wheat Showroom is beaming to present a  group exhibition entitled, Ascension Symptoms. Artists in the exhibition include: Caroline Larson, Chris Watts, Monica Lorraine Bernal, Ryoko Furukawa, and Sage Tucker-Ketcham. Opening on Saturday, 19 of September and running through 24 October.

Ascension Symptoms refer to the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual experiences that occur during a consciousness awakening.  Like a veil has been lifted over the third-eye, one now sees clearly the energy exchanges of physical interactions authentically. It could also bring fluctuation of emotions, elevated acuity to other’s moods as immediate affects from other’s actions. It’s as if one can finally hear their gut, their intuition—this time though, they trust it. There is often physical discomfort as one transitions to a broader level of consciousness. This exhibition presses the changes in such a consciousness even alluding and addressing a revolution. The exhibition aims to depict symptoms that have been documented during an expanded state of awareness through a variety of painting strategies and content.

Caroline Larson’s oozing oil paints, thick with vibrating colors stroked on canvas over panel, are like zen sand gardens. Straight from the tube, undulating hues gush rhythmically with control. Yet, the squiggling patterns unsettle the form, perhaps like our bodies feel when tapped into another’s electromagnetic field; she’s capturing energetic waves. In “Salvation Mountain” one may exalt in love, beauty and salvation, as the subject matter also makes one consider mixed-signals of symptoms from dogmatic control, and power down dynamics of promises of ascension.

When long-looking at Chris Watts’ abstractions, one may notice much more than the richly died translucent poly-chiffon. The earth tones skillfully wash throughout as he explores the transfiguration of painting. Entering through the skin of ‘canvas,’ notice the frame. Seeing through and beyond the proverbial veil, exposing the structure, Watts’ works attribute quite comparatively to masks that come off, loosing the shroud that cloaks a disguise. Coming out of hiding, one sees the structure holding a meditation to the immaterial.

In Everyday Scaries by Monica Lorraine Bernal, an onlooker affronts two highly unhinged figures. Unnatural in the depths of a forest, their healing setting contradicts their body language. As if awareness of our ‘body suits’ shock the spirit. Like other’s in the show, Bernal uses her intuition to relay an unsettling truth. A truth that bears personal witness to when we close our eyes and consider our place on earth. What relayed is like quick stills from scenes of horror. With that, she examine’s her shadow, alongside her own and another’s innermost fears.

Painter and poet, Ryoko Furukawa toys with the guise of reality in her soft hand yet expression filled works. Taking quotes from lyrics of songs and quotes from movies, she paints imaginatively thinking of the scene. Look closely at her canvas: She can’t become a “good wife and wise mother” at Jennifer Lopez’s party. The almost bodiless apparitions float in vague scenes between worlds, however connecting. Here again, using her higher-self to relay a ghostly world where anything is possible, figures float, barely there, living for each other on a spiritual plane. Each character vibrationally connects with one another, each work, proving a conveyance of entanglement.

Sage Tucker-Ketcham examines through dense layers of oil on canvas an environmental bend to these symptoms. A frequenter of long daily walks in her native Vermont, she wields memorized plant-life as still meditations. Ketcham depicts hyperphantasia-like abilities, sheds expectations of natural color and builds a thickly infused ambiance, even allowing the atmosphere to mingle with these plants and to become an amplified character. Adding over brushing of hues with an ominous emotional filmy glow, like light-leeks, she brings the ‘air’ to life. Could it be the ‘Nothing?’ Coming to blind humans from ascension? Or, is it an impending cloud of pollution blocking the life forms from growth? Do we adjust our eyes to identify whether it’s a warning? Or the sunset?

All these artists address a simple solution to being conscientious to our environment, energy exchanges, dreams, and experiences in the field. While addressing ourselves as sovereign beings, able to clock authenticity, we trust that things aren’t always what they seem. “I’m seeing things differently now,” might be the battle cry of this curatorial statement.

We’e able to walk and chew gum at the same time. While ‘truthiness’ prevails, and while artists, and arts adjacent critical researchers and thinkers amongst us see the true story—we have been warned. Perhaps cautionary steps towards a surrender of fear is what’s at stake in this exhibition.

BIOs:

In the intricate world of Canadian artist Caroline Larsen's (b. 1980 Toronto, Canada)  still-life oil compositions, she unveils elaborate bouquets and finely detailed vases, unveiling a distinctive technique at the core of her artistic approach. Employing her skillful application of thick daubs of oil paint, Larsen achieves a neo-impressionistic effect that, intriguingly, is often mistaken for woven textiles. This unique method not only serves as a hallmark of her artistic style but also creates a textured surface reminiscent of textile, craft, and embroidery, introducing a sculptural dimension that underscores the profound depth of her artistic exploration.

Furthermore, Larsen's recent forays into oil and acrylic landscapes add another layer to her artistic repertoire, provoking a diverse range of emotions. This shift underscores the Canadian artist's mastery in manipulating color and texture, fostering a profound resonance with viewers on a deeply personal level. Guided by her encounters in day-to-day life, cherished memories, and an enduring fascination with folk, craft, and outsider art, Larsen embarks on a thematic journey that encompasses vibrant flora, the allure of folklore aesthetics, captivating landscapes, and iconic cultural moments.

Caroline Larsen's significant presence in the art world is underscored by a rich exhibition history. Solo exhibitions at renowned venues like Andrew Rafacz in Chicago, Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, and The Hole NYC in New York City showcase her mastery in crafting visually striking paintings. Notably, Larsen contributed to "The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe" at the North Carolina Museum of Art, curated by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Her participation in group shows also involve the Guerrero Gallery and Greenpoint Terminal Gallery, coupled with inclusion in esteemed collections such as the Dean Collection, Aisthti Foundation, and Microsoft.

Chris Watts is an abstract painter and mixed-media artist whose work seeks to revise, interrogate, and re-examine social and personal narratives through the transfiguration of painting, drawing, video, and installations. This re-examination also seeks to create a project of disruption. Currently, these projects exist as representations of windows as switches into another, layered, assemblage of spaces where the distinction between what is real and what is represented is thoroughly confused.

Watts (b. 1984, High Point, NC) shares his time between New York and North Carolina. He attended the MFA program at Yale School of Art after graduating from the College of Arts and Architecture, University of North Carolina in 2009, and the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Wroclaw, Poland, in 2006. Watts has held various artist residencies including the Marek Maria Pienkowski Foundation, McColl Center for Art + Innovation, the Art & Law Fellowship Program at Cornell University Art Architecture Planning, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program, and the 2022-2023 Soros Justice Fellowship Program. 

His work has been exhibited at Welancora Gallery, Galerie Lelong & Co. in New York, NY; Bode Projects in Berlin, DE; Monica King Contemporary in New York, NY; Artspace Visual Art Center in Raleigh, NC; Galleria Pienkow in Lipinki, Poland; Knockdown Center in New York, NY; and McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, NC, among others.

His work is in the collection of the Mint Museum, Davidson College, and the Jimenez-Colon Collection. Watts' work has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, ARTNews, and Brooklyn Magazine. He is a featured artist in the documentary film The Art of Making It, directed by Kelcey Edwards and produced by Emmy-nominated producer Debi Wisch (The Price of Everything).

Monica L. Bernal (American, b. Bogota, Colombia 1986) is an illustrative painter and E.R. Nurse who lives and works in Philadelphia. Bernal creates intimate yet surreal works using oil and water based paints on non-traditional surfaces such as mylar and wood. She incorporates visions of outer space-landscapes combined with a cast of lifeforms within the imaginative setting. Her unique vernacular translates a meditative and energetic fantasy of an unearthly way of life. The raw morphing of what is familiar and what is dreamlike are spatial conundrums. Bernal is gives her viewer a window of clear references to The Fantastic while rooted by intuitive mark-making. Bernal received her (MFA from Parsons The New School and BA from UC Riverside.) She has exhibited her work at Elijah Wheat Showroom, Brooklyn, the Kitchen, NYC, Zolla/Lieberman in Chicago, and W Archive.

Ryoko Furukawa was born in 1994 in Yumesaki, Hyogo Prefecture. She completed her M.F.A. at Hiroshima City University in 2022 and is currently based in Chiba Prefecture. Represented by Eunoia in Japan, where Elijah Wheat discovered her at a booth at NADA NY in May ’26.

Furukawa's practice centers on the relationship between images and words, paintings and their titles, and the structures of language, such as naming and word order. The artist cuts and reshapes words into whimsical creative titles, transforming familiar meanings into dreamlike scenarios. She uses English vocabulary books, instruction manuals, piano textbooks, friends’ diaries, and more of those texts written by others as source material, extracting and reconstructing fragments of language to develop her paintings. Furukawa’s work is inspired by the random collage techniques of Dadaism and the narrative style of William S. Burroughs’ novels, challenging the conventional practice of titling a work after its completion and deconstructing the hierarchical relationship between the image and its title. In recent years, she has also worked with installation, patchwork quilts, video, and art books, presenting her works both in Japan and internationally. Furukawa's paintings attempt to explore a sense of uncertainty and insecurity, using bizarre and surreal visual imagery to reinterpret the meaning of words.

With over 20 years’ experience as a working artist, Sage Tucker-Ketcham’s art is collected nationwide and internationally. Tucker-Ketcham received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting from Maine College of Art & Design and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Sage Tucker-Ketcham's has exhibited at Two Coats of Paint, LIC, NY, Burlington City Arts, Burlington VT; Provincetown Association and Art Museum and the Fine Arts Work Center Provincetown; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland ME; Shelburne Museum, Shelburne VT; Greenwich Library, Greenwich, CT; and Flynn Center for the Arts, Burlington, VT.

Tucker-Ketcham’s work has been widely exhibited in galleries in, Burlington, VT; Boston, MA; Dallas and Fort Worth, TX; Greenwich, CT; Martha’s Vineyard, Provincetown, Boston and Pittsfield, MA; Portland, ME; Sarasota, FL

Tucker-Ketcham’s works have appeared in the Boston Globe, The New York Times, Art New England Art Scope, Seven Days, the Provincetown Banner, Hemisphere Magazine, Burlington Free Press, Greenwich Times, TimeOut, NerdWallet among others.

Her pieces are part of international private collections in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, and Canada. Her works are in corporate collections including Northfield Savings Bank, Vermont Community Foundation, National Life Group, The Hinds Loft, Delta Airlines, Roundstone International among others. 

Elijah Wheat Showroom (est. 2015) is a New York-based artist-run gallery and nomadic curatorial experience founded by Carolina Wheat & Liz Nielsen. Currently positioned in  Beacon, NY,. The gallery once resided in Newburgh, NY on the Hudson River in an 200 year old raw historic factory building, once “Newburgh Steelworks” comprising 3390 sq/ft from 2020-’26. Prior to that, EWS was in a storefront in Bushwick, Brooklyn, 2016-2020. The duo has put together over 80 exhibitions thus far. The gallery is named after their late son, Elijah, whose creative insight, righteous vision, perceptive being and stylistic voice for trendsetting embody the spirit that the Showroom honors. Elijah Wheat artists are socially conscientious, politically engaged and reflective of a creative community striving to cultivate meaningful interactions to promote the diversity of artists' voices through the determination to make visual culture part of our everyday life.