Rhizomes Solo Exhibition

April 24 - May 31, 2025 | The Patrician Gallery, Wilmette, IL

Artist Statement

My work is an exploration of botanic interconnectedness, inspired by the concept of the rhizome. Much like the rhizomatic structures that grow underground, my paintings evolve by following processes that resist uniformity and evolve from material experimentation. This exhibition functions as a collection of ideas that will continue to grow, transform, and branch off into new forms and interpretations.

The rhizome is a decentralized root-like structure that grows in an unpredictable manner. It operates as food-storage for a plant and for animals (e.g. ginger, turmeric, lotus-root) and as a form of asexual reproduction by growing its own shoots and roots. Vegetative propagation is a system I follow in my own studio–allowing the “off- cuts” of pieces to grow and shift into one another. In this way, the studio functions as an organism and ecosystem.

Materials like ink and charcoal (burnt, organic matter) catalyze this process, encouraging moments of spontaneity within a set system. I am fascinated by the tension between dendritic, flowing forms and more rigid, grid-like structures. However, the standard grid is a flexible framework that can be disrupted. Its rigidity is questioned when we understand it as a net or web that blurs distinction between organic and geometric. This is additionally challenged in the materials that form a “standard” painting–woven canvas stretched over wooden frames.

Ultimately, Rhizomes showcases the interrelated collaboration between myself, the materials, and the pieces in this exhibition to highlight our congruity with the natural world.