Exhibits & Events

At the heart of this exhibition is a deep respect for natural materials and traditional techniques—fiber, clay, paper—and their potential to carry meaning. The exhibition explores themes of memory, transformation, and female lineage through two distinct yet resonant material practices. Both artists approach their mediums with an experimental spirit shaped by personal histories and translate that into layered forms that reveal and conceal, collapse and endure. Their parallel experience of maternal loss (both artists lost their mothers in recent years) weaves through their newest work, and creates a poignant dialogue between structure and surrender, processing grief and growth.

Barbara Straussberg draws from her background as an abstract painter, combining printmaking, collage, and sculpture with handmade papers and archival family images. Her use of Joomchi, a Korean paper-manipulation technique, along with recurring circular forms, speaks to cycles of life, continuity, and remembrance. In this exhibition she continues to push the limits of her materials. She places a special emphasis on sculpting with natural materials and exploring the infinite possibilities of printmaking, sometimes combining the two art forms. Layers of translucent handmade paper embedded with antique family photos form a personal archive of emotion and ancestry. Her latest pieces incorporate monotypes, photopolymer plates, and collagraph textures, creating rich surfaces that invite viewers to peer into personal histories that are both hidden and revealed.

Belsky’s ceramic forms begin with hand-knitted or crocheted fabrics—an inheritance of skill passed down from generations of women in her family. Dipped in porcelain slip and fired, the soft textiles are transformed into delicate clay remnants that hold the memory of their original form. Cracked seams, collapsed folds, and fractured edges are not flaws, but vital parts of the work—traces of tension, tenderness, and transformation. The resulting sculptures are remnants and reliquaries—delicate and strong, fragile and enduring.

Together, Straussberg and Belsky create a poetic dialogue between preservation and letting go, tradition and experimentation. Their shared reverence for natural materials and inherited practices fosters a conversation about what is passed down, what is lost, and what remains. “Material Memory: Twisted Lines, Rooted Forms” is a moving tribute to the act of making as a way to hold memory in form.