ON VIEW
First GENERATION: WOVEN NARRATIVES
A group Exhibition
Opening reception: June 17, 2026, 6 - 8 PM
On View: JUNE 18 - July 17, 2026
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First generation: Woven narratives
Galerie Shibumi Presents First Generation: Woven Narratives
June 17 – July 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 17, 2026 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
NEW YORK, NY – June 15, 2026 - Galerie Shibumi is proud to present First Generation: Woven Narratives, a group exhibition featuring twenty-seven artists whose work explores the intersections of identity, cultural inheritance, migration, memory, and community through fiber, textile, and materially driven practices. Organized in collaboration with Creative Urban Alchemy, the exhibition opens on June 17, 2026 and remains on view through July 17, 2026.
There is perhaps no better place for an exhibition like First Generation than New York City.
For generations, New York has served as a meeting place for the world. People arrive here carrying different languages, traditions, religions, cuisines, memories, and aspirations. Some families have called the city home for centuries. Others arrived only recently. Yet despite our differences, we participate in the same ongoing project: building a shared future while honoring where we came from.
That spirit feels especially relevant today. In recent months, New Yorkers have rallied around an unlikely championship run by the New York Knicks, a team whose success was built not on individual glory but on trust, sacrifice, and collective effort. Their victory became more than a sports story. It became a reminder of something New Yorkers have always understood: extraordinary things happen when people from different backgrounds commit themselves to a common purpose.
The artists featured in First Generation: Woven Narratives embody that same principle.
Through weaving, embroidery, stitching, knotting, assemblage, sculpture, and mixed media practices, these artists explore the ways culture is preserved, transformed, and transmitted across generations. Their works examine personal and collective histories, diasporic experiences, family traditions, displacement, resilience, and the ongoing search for belonging.
Textiles have long served as vessels of cultural memory. Across civilizations, cloth has carried stories, preserved knowledge, marked important life events, and connected generations through shared traditions of making. Every woven object is built through the relationship of individual threads. Alone, a single strand may appear fragile. Together, those strands create something capable of carrying weight, preserving history, and enduring over time.
This exhibition embraces that metaphor.
Each artist contributes a distinct perspective shaped by their own lived experience, yet together they form a larger narrative about humanity’s interconnectedness. The exhibition reflects the reality of contemporary New York itself: a city built by people whose stories begin in different places but become intertwined through proximity, community, and shared purpose.
Featured artists include Ayanna Legros, Lu W, Ifeoma Ebo, Farangiz Yusupova, Cynthia Alberto, Jenna Arvelo, daaPO, Hoor Imad Sherpao, Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown, Freda Xinyue Xia, Madi Diaz, Hyun Jung Jung, Ashley Lian, Zawadi (Marglucy Omwega), Vanessa Villarreal, Helen Lin, Angelique De Castro, Sao Ohtake, Lin Qiqing, Marina Peng, Jori Jori, Michelle Ralph-Fortón, Maame Agyeben, Ruth Huang Xu, Ayesha Syed, Abel Reyes, and Ha Neul On.
Representing a wide range of cultural backgrounds, artistic approaches, and personal histories, these twenty-seven artists demonstrate how contemporary fiber and textile practices continue to serve as powerful tools for storytelling and cultural preservation. Their work reminds us that identity is never static. It is woven from memory, family, geography, experience, and the communities that shape us.
As a Black woman-owned gallery founded on the belief that contemporary art should reflect the complexity and diversity of the world around us, Galerie Shibumi views this exhibition as both a celebration and a statement. The strength of New York has never been found in uniformity. It has always emerged from difference. The city thrives because people from across the globe continue to bring their cultures, talents, perspectives, and dreams into conversation with one another.
At a time when public discourse often emphasizes division, First Generation: Woven Narratives offers a different perspective. It reminds us that while our histories may begin in different places, our futures remain deeply connected. We are artists, neighbors, workers, parents, children, immigrants, descendants, dreamers, and builders. We are part of the same human fabric.
In many ways, this exhibition serves as a portrait of New York itself: imperfect, diverse, ambitious, resilient, and continually being woven into something new.
Exhibition Details:
Exhibition Title: First Generation: Woven Narratives
Dates: June 17 - July 17, 2026
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 17, 6–8 PM
Location: Galerie Shibumi, 261 West 35th Street, Suite 1401, New York, NY 10001
For press inquiries, images, or more info please contact:
Email: contact@galerieshibumi.com
Website: www.galerieshibumi.com
Instagram: @galerieshibumi
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COMING SOON…
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COMING SOON…
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COMING SOON…
Featuring: Ayanna Legros, Lu W, Ifeoma Ebo, Farangiz Yusupova, Cynthia Alberto, Jenna Arvelo, daaPO, Hoor Imad Sherpao, Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown, Freda Xinyue Xia, Madi Diaz,
Hyun Jung Jung, Ashley Lian, Zawadi, Vanessa Villarreal,
Helen Lin, Angelique De Castro, Sao Ohtake, Lin Qiqing,
Marina Peng, Jori Jori, Michelle Ralph-Fortón, Maame Agyeben, Ruth Huang Xu, Ayesha Syed, Abel Reyes,
Ha Neul On 
PREVIOUS EXHIBITION
light between departures
A group Photography Exhibition
Opening Reception: April 9, 2026, 6 - 8 PM
On View: April 9 - April 30, 2026
Press kit
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A GROUP PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION PRESENTED BY GALERIE SHIBUMI
New York, NY – March 27, 2026 - Galerie Shibumi is pleased to present Light Between Departures, a group photography exhibition bringing together over twenty artists whose practices are shaped by movement, memory, and the act of witnessing the world while in transit.
At its core, Light Between Departures considers the quiet, often overlooked moments that occur in between destinations. It is an exhibition about the spaces we pass through, the images we carry with us, and the subtle transformations that take place when we step outside of the familiar. Travel, in this context, is not treated as spectacle but as a condition, one that heightens perception, disrupts routine, and invites a deeper sensitivity to light, time, and presence.
The photographs in this exhibition are not simply documents of place, but reflections of internal landscapes. They are shaped by distance, by longing, by curiosity, and by the tension between arrival and departure. Together, the works form a collective meditation on what it means to move through the world with intention, and how photography becomes a tool for both grounding and discovery.
The artists included in Light Between Departures represent a wide range of approaches to image-making, yet are united by a shared attentiveness to the fleeting and the ephemeral.
Leslie Silva brings a cinematic and deeply human perspective to the exhibition. A multidisciplinary artist and Juilliard-trained actor, Silva uses photography and mixed media to explore identity, vulnerability, and power.
Her work centers the body as both subject and site, creating intimate portraits that challenge dominant narratives while inviting emotional and cultural reflection.
Tyler Jordan, known as C.A.N.V.A.S (Creating A New View Around Society), transforms New York City’s subway systeminto a visual language of motion and connection. Drawing from his decade-long experience with the MTA, his long-exposure photographs reimagine transit as a space of beauty, resilience, and shared humanity.
Ayanna Legros, a historian and visual artist, creates assemblages that honor overlooked histories and lived experiences within the Afro-descended diaspora. Using organic materials such as dried flowers, cloth, and seashells, her work reframes historical narratives, centering tenderness, intimacy, and the everyday lives often excluded from dominant archives.
Alvin Kean Wong approaches photography as a method of thinking rather than explanation. Working primarily with film, his images emerge through layering, multiple exposures, and chance. Often created while traveling at night, his work reflects a quiet attentiveness to presence, uncertainty, and the spaces between movement and stillness.
Ethan Lan, a self-taught Taiwanese-American artist, explores identity, family, and social justice through photography, printmaking, and bookmaking. His work exists at the intersection of personal and collective memory, using image and material to investigate resilience and inherited experience.
Ketty Haolin Zhang’s multidisciplinary practice reflects her diasporic experience, navigating themes of belonging, intimacy, and spiritual tension. Through assemblage, painting, and digital media, she creates nuanced compositions that exist between closeness and distance, devotion and desire.
Salimah Ali, a highly accomplished photographer with a career spanning decades, brings a profound sense of humanity and legacy to the exhibition. Her images are intimate and unguarded, rooted in a deep commitment to storytelling and the preservation of lived experience. As a former member of Kamoinge, her work continues to shape the canon of Black photography.
Ivana Larrosa works across photography, video, and performance, creating pieces that are both conceptual and embodied. Her practice often engages with narrative, presence, and transformation, informed by her extensive experience exhibiting internationally and working within collaborative performance environments.
Laura Elena Cruz approaches architecture as both subject and abstraction. Through careful attention to light, perspective, and geometry, her film photographs reframe built environments, encouraging viewers to see familiar structures through a lens of minimalism and visual clarity.
Heriberto Sanchez, a Bronx-based photographer and educator, creates work rooted in memory, family, and community. Inspired by his mother’s early documentation of their lives, his images continue a lineage of storytelling, capturing the quiet, enduring moments of belonging within his community.
Andranik Aroutiounian’s globally exhibited practice reflects a conceptual engagement with place and perception. With a background shaped by international study and fellowship, his work contributes a broader, cross-cultural perspective to the exhibition.
Yu-Yu Demi Chen draws from her multicultural background to create photographs that move between documentary and conceptual modes. Her work often incorporates symbolism and narrative, exploring emotional and psychological landscapes shaped by lived experience.
Laurel Lueders, a seasoned artist and educator, has spent decades exploring image-based practices through photography and installation. Her work reflects a sustained inquiry into memory, space, and perception, informed by an extensive international exhibition history.
Duy Hoàng’s interdisciplinary practice is shaped by migration, displacement, and cultural adaptation. His work reflects a deeply personal yet globally informed perspective, developed through years of international exhibitions and residencies.
Martei Korley brings a rich archive of cultural storytelling to the exhibition. With roots in both Denmark and Ghana and a career spanning photography, music, and media, his work documents diasporic identity, particularly within reggae culture, with depth and authenticity.
Michael Young’s street and documentary photography captures the rhythms of everyday life in New York City. His work is driven by a sensitivity to light and shadow, creating images that are both immediate and contemplative.
Curtis William Frank, a self-taught artist, moves fluidly between photography, drawing, and collage. His practice is rooted in travel and observation, capturing people and environments across the globe with an intuitive and exploratory approach.
Together, these artists create a dynamic and layered portrait of movement, perception, and memory. Light Between Departures invites viewers to slow down, to sit within the in-between, and to consider how moments of transition shape not only what we see, but how we understand ourselves in relation to the world.
Exhibition Details:
Exhibition Title: Light Between Departures
Dates: April 9 - 30, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 9, 6–8 PM
Location: Galerie Shibumi, 261 West 35th Street,
Suite 1401, New York, NY
For press inquiries, images, or more info please contact:
Email: contact@galerieshibumi.com
Website: www.galerieshibumi.com
Instagram: @galerieshibumi
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Featuring: Leslie Silva, Tyler Jordan, Ayanna Legros, Alvin Kean Wong, Ethan Lan, Ketty Haolin Zhang, Salimah Ali, Ivana Larrosa, Laura Elena Cruz, Heriberto Sanchez, Andranik Aroutiounian, Yu-Yu Demi Chen, Laurel Lueders Duy Hoàng, Martei Korley, Michael Young, Curtis Frank, Folana MillerPAST EXHIBITIONS
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A SOLO EXHIBITION BY YEONKYUNG PARK
New York, NY – December 26, 2025 - Galerie Shibumi is pleased to present Unfading Traces, a solo exhibition by South Korean artist YeonKyung Park, whose quietly powerful paintings explore impermanence, memory, and the meditative space between appearance and disappearance.
The exhibition marks Park’s first solo presentation with the gallery and began, fittingly, through a moment of contemporary serendipity. Galerie Shibumi’s director discovered Park’s work on Instagram and was immediately drawn to the stillness and emotional clarity of her paintings, as well as the gentle, almost ritualistic process through which they are made. In a digital landscape defined by speed and spectacle, Park’s work offered something rare: a sense of calm, patience, and reflection that lingered long after the screen was closed.
Park’s practice moves fluidly between abstraction and figuration, guided by intuition and unconscious gesture. Using a towel or cloth to rub and soften pigment across the surface, she allows forms to emerge gradually, as if recalled rather than observed. This process becomes a quiet act of excavation, revealing traces of emotion, memory, and time. Her ongoing Still Life series centers on flowers, not as decorative symbols, but as meditations on transience, care, and the fleeting nature of beauty.
Flowers have long carried layered meanings across cultures. In East Asian traditions, they often symbolize humility, seasonal change, and spiritual reflection. In Western art history, flowers have served as powerful metaphors for life and mortality, from the vanitas still lifes of the Dutch Golden Age to modernist explorations of nature as emotion and form.
Artists such as Ambrosius Bosschaert, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and Rachel Ruysch elevated floral still life into a sophisticated language of symbolism, where each bloom spoke to time, fragility, and abundance. Later, figures like Vincent van Gogh and Georgia O’Keeffe transformed flowers into deeply personal and psychological subjects, while Cy Twombly distilled nature into gestural marks that hovered between writing, memory, and sensation.
Park’s work enters into this lineage while remaining distinctly her own. Her flowers do not announce themselves at full bloom. Instead, they appear softened, blurred, and on the verge of disappearance. They ask the viewer to slow down, to look closely, and to sit with what is fading rather than what is fixed.
As Park writes: “One morning, I woke up at early dawn. The color of the room was filled with a faint shade of blue, and for a moment, the world felt calm and still. In that fragile light, I felt an inexplicable sense of peace—a brief pause before the day began. Yet, dawn passes quickly. Within thirty minutes, the sun rises, and that soft blue disappears. That ephemerality made me realize how everything I love exists only for a short while.”
This sensitivity to fleeting moments runs throughout her practice. By working in muted, monochromatic tones and smudged textures, Park treats painting as a metaphor for memory itself, something that endures even as it blurs. Her flowers become acts of remembrance, painted not out of nostalgia or loss, but gratitude. They are quiet acknowledgments of shared time, shared air, and shared presence.
Unfading Traces invites viewers into a contemplative space where still life becomes a meditation on time, tenderness, and attention. In honoring what fades, Park reminds us that even the most transient moments can leave lasting impressions.
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Soft Power: Reimagining Form and Feeling
GROUP SHOW INCLUDING: ME Sparks, Goldfinch Bolton, Ollie Hongji Li, Sara Liz Marty, Estudio PM, Madi Diaz, Kathie Halfin
Opening Reception: Wednesday November 19, 2025 — 6 - 8 PM
On View: November 19 - January 10, 2026
PRESS KIT
SOUVENIRS
GALERIE SHIBUMI AND UNDERSCORE LABORATORIES
PRESENT A NEW SOLO EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS
Opening Reception: Thursday October 16, 2025
On View: October 16 - November 15, 2025
press kit
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SOUVENIRS
GALERIE SHIBUMI AND UNDERSCORE LABORATORIES PRESENT A NEW SOLO EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY HILL SPRIGGINS.
New York, NY - September 18, 2025 Galerie Shibumi and Underscore Laboratories are pleased to announce Souvenirs, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Hill Spriggins. The show opens with a reception on Thursday, October 16, from 6 to 8 PM and will remain on view through November 15, 2025.
For Hill Spriggins, souvenirs are more than postcards, trinkets, or keepsakes; they are the moments that stay with you long after the trip is over. Over the past year, Spriggins traveled more than ever before. She visited Australia, Scotland, London, North Carolina, and Maine. Each destination offered memories, images, and the irresistible pull to return to the studio in New York to paint.
“Souvenir” in French means “memory,” and “se souvenir” means “to remember.” The dual meaning speaks to Spriggins’ renewed relationship with memory and her desire to hold onto it through painting, a deeply personal process shaped by her own history with depression and memory loss. “Souvenir is defined as a thing kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event,” Spriggins says.
“I am lucky to live a life where almost every day feels significant enough to want to document and remember. I think that is what these paintings are about, gratitude for the small moments, the people around me, and the love I feel in those memories.”
Spriggins’ practice in earlier works often omitted backgrounds, reflecting a sense of being ungrounded and detached from place. In contrast, Souvenirs embrace setting and presence. The paintings capture friends and loved ones, conversations at a bar, a quiet moment at home, and a crowded DJ set. Each one is grounded in the fullness of lived experience.
The show also takes inspiration from Vincent van Gogh’s journals, where the artist wrote about leaving behind some souvenirs in the form of drawings and paintings, not tied to any movement but filled with genuine human sentiment. These words guided Spriggins in creating this body of work.
Spriggins hopes audiences leave the exhibition with a sense of love, gratitude, and connection.
About the Artist
Hill Spriggins is a New York–based painter whose work explores memory, intimacy, and the beauty of everyday moments. Using a wide spectrum of color, from cadmium scarlet to vivid blues and viridian greens, Spriggins builds layered portraits of life as it unfolds, honoring the sentimental and the fleeting alike.
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REFUSAL OF ERASURE (NOTHING GOES QUIET HERE)
“Look again. Listen closely.
What you ignore has something to say.
What’s been left behind still breathes.”
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 13
On View: September 13 – October 11, 2025
Press Kit
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REFUSAL OF ERASURE (NOTHING GOES QUIET HERE)
New York, NY – August 19, 2025 – Galerie Shibumi, in collaboration with Artemartis, is proud to announce the first New York solo exhibition of Ghanaian artist James Mishio, opening at Galerie Shibumi this fall. The exhibition, titled “REFUSAL OF ERASURE (NOTHING GOES QUIET HERE),” marks a significant moment in Mishio’s career and a milestone in the gallery’s commitment to presenting urgent voices in contemporary art.
“Look again. Listen closely.
What you ignore has something to say.
What’s been left behind still breathes.”
This exhibition unfolds in two parts—Refusal of Erasure and Nothing Goes Quiet Here—each one calling the viewer into a deeper conversation. Not just with James Mishio’s work, but with the rhythms of memory, material, and meaning that live quietly beneath the surface of our everyday world. Together, these titles frame an experience that challenges how we define value, beauty, and waste—and who gets to decide.
At its core, Refusal of Erasure centers on Mishio’s profound act of reclamation: a process that gathers discarded fabrics and abandoned textiles, not as refuse, but as repositories of lives once lived. The title declares resistance. It is a stance against forgetting, against the invisibility that often cloaks both materials and the people who once touched them. Here, “refusal” is not passive—it is intentional, it is active. It is the artist’s way of saying: “This will not be lost. This matters.”
Each piece in the exhibition is a deliberate interruption of disappearance. Mishio doesn’t simply use found fabrics—he listens to them. He stitches, layers, and reimagines them into powerful visual statements that hold memory, cultural history, and personal resonance. In doing so, he restores dignity to what society has cast off. His art becomes a way of insisting that nothing—no material, no story—is truly disposable.
Nothing Goes Quiet Here expands this idea into the realm of sound, silence, and survival. The title suggests a space where even the quietest threads carry weight. Where silence itself hums with testimony. Nothing in this gallery space fades into the background; every work insists on being heard, seen, and felt. Mishio’s practice reveals the persistent echoes that live in fabric folds, frayed edges, and patched surfaces. Each work is a site of resistance, a vessel of endurance, a whisper that refuses to be silenced.
Together, these titles frame a powerful ethos: that art is not just about making—it is about remembering, witnessing, and reimagining. Mishio’s process speaks to a larger cycle of care, sustainability, and cultural memory. He invites us to reconsider our own habits of consumption and discarding, asking: “What are we throwing away? Who are we forgetting?”
This exhibition is not quiet. It is not passive. It is a living archive—an act of holding on, of lifting up, of speaking back. It is a declaration that what has been erased can be remembered. That what has been discarded can be re-seen. That nothing, truly, goes quiet here.
Exhibition Details
Exhibition Title: REFUSAL OF ERASURE (NOTHING GOES QUIET HERE)
Artist: James Mishio
Presented by: Galerie Shibumi in collaboration with Artemartis
Location: Galerie Shibumi, 261 West 35th Street, Suite 1401, New York, NY
Dates: September 13 - October 11, 2025
Opening Reception: September 13, 2025
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Photo Credit: Kunning Huang
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Photo Credit: soulbphotos
BLACK NEW YORK
A group Exhibition
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 7; 6 - 8 PM
On View: August 8 – September 6, 2025
Press Kit
Featuring Shasekh Augustin, Jenna Arvelo, Maya Beverly, SantanaCopeland, Nyzere Dillon, Laura Gayle, Garry Grant, GOODW.Y.N., Kahdeem Jefferson, Leah King, Ayanna Legros, Emily Manwaring, Alexis Mendoza, Aala Oni, Iris Phenix, John Ricard, Haley Sessoms, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Christina M. Tapper, Atiim Turnbull, Michael Young, and Zawadi.
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Galerie Shibumi Presents “Black New York” — A Poetic Portrait of Diaspora, Identity, and Expression
New York, NY — Galerie Shibumi is proud to present Black New York, a group exhibition featuring painting, photography, sculpture, and film by a dynamic cross-section of NYC-based artists. Rooted in diasporic legacy and contemporary urgency, the show reflects on what it means to create—and exist—through a Black lens in the city that claims to be the capital of the world. This exhibition will open with a reception Thursday,August 7, 2025 from 6-8 PM at our new gallery space at 261 West 35th Street, Suite 1401, New York, NY. Please RSVP if you plan to attend this opening using our Partiful link:
partiful.com/e/aZFWhUjdvofMrsEgI676
This is not a retrospective or a didactic timeline. Black New York unfolds like a poem: unbound by singular narrative or form, rhythmic in tone, layered in meaning, and alive with contradictions. It invites reflection, dialogue, and feeling. The works don’t explain—they resonate. Like a good poem, they ask to be felt before they are fully understood.
The title Black New York carries weight—and for some, complexity. But just as in subtractive color theory, where black is the culmination of all colors combined, the Black experience in New York is not absence, but presence. It is rich. It is the creation of shade, depth, and new dimensions. It holds histories, frictions, joys, and innovations all at once.
The exhibition features work by:
Shasekh Augustin, Jenna Arvelo, Maya Beverly, SantanaCopeland, Nyzere Dillon, Laura Gayle,
Garry Grant, GOODW.Y.N., Kahdeem Jefferson,
Leah King, Ayanna Legros, Emily Manwaring,
Alexis Mendoza, Aala Oni, Iris Phenix, John Ricard, Haley Sessoms, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter,
Christina M. Tapper, Atiim Turnbull, Michael Young, and Zawadi.
These artists reflect the expansive possibilities of Black expression in New York today. They come from different lineages and training—some self-taught, others institutionally trained—but all bring a distinct vision shaped by their lived realities, cultural memory, and emotional landscapes. Through their work, they transform the city’s chaos into clarity, and its density into poetry.
“This city is a mirror,” says Folana Miller, Director of Galerie Shibumi. “It reflects and refracts everything—language, pain, capitalism, culture, trauma, love. The artists in Black New York don’t just react to that; they transform it. They make sense of the noise through beauty, repetition, vulnerability, and vision.”
The exhibition marks the opening of Galerie Shibumi’s new space at 261 West 35th Street, Suite 1401, a hub for contemporary art that prioritizes discovery, discourse, and community-building. With this show, the gallery reaffirms its commitment to presenting work that is emotionally honest, culturally urgent, and unapologetically personal.
Exhibition Details:
Opening Reception: August 7, 2025, 6–8 PM
Location: Galerie Shibumi - 261 West 35th Street, Suite 1401, New York, NY
On View: August 8 – September 6, 2025
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INSIDE ROOMS,
OUTSIDE SPACES
ira oksman
Opening Reception: June 21, 2025; 5 - 7 PM
On View: June 22 - July 20 , 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)
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Ira Oksman’s debut solo exhibition at Galerie Shibumi
New York, NY – Galerie Shibumi presents Inside Rooms, Oustide Spaces; Ira Oksman’s debut solo exhibition. Ira Oksman’s work is rooted in the tension between pagan Slavic traditions and the rise of the early avant-garde during the final days of the Russian Empire. This exhibition will be on view June 22-July 20, 2025 at Galerie Shibumi, located at 13 Market Street, New York, NY. Join us for the opening reception June 21, 5-8 PM.
Ира Оксман (Ira Oksman, pron. "Éera", she/her, b. 1985) is a multidisciplinary artist originally from Moscow, Russia. Growing up during the time of perestroika created a complex and often volatile ground where the shifting powers and lack of reliable stability affected every family and individual. After moving to Canada in her late teens Ira slowly made her way to NYC. After a number of professional careers, most of which were self-taught, she was able to navigate her way into the visual and performing arts. She is currently living and working in Ridgewood, Queens.
Ira's work is deeply rooted in the clash between the Paganistic slavic culture and birthing of the early Avant-garde in the late stages of the tsarist Russian Empire.
In 1912 Petrov-Vodkin painted The Bathing of the Red Horse. The first time Ira saw it was when she was 8 and got deeply taken by the incredibly vivid colors and a curious scene.
Everything about that painting screamed joy. It looks like great fun for the boy who is completely naked, yet the horse is wearing a harness. Why is there a harness? Was the horse there willingly or would it run away if given a chance? There was this strange underlying sense of control in this very happy moment.
The symbolism of a red horse is fairly prominent in the Slavic folklore signifying good fortune, wealth, best friend, ally, savior. For men, traditionally, the relationship with their horse was as important as that with their wife or parents. The horse took care of them, did their bidding, and fought by their side.
That relationship was deep and meaningful, the loss was mourned, the unity was celebrated. It was love. Yet, still, in that joyful and deeply interconnected state, the love came from the place of utility and possession. And that love probably never resulted in the horse being set free.
In the beginning of XVI hundreds women in the Russian villages were wearing Horned Kichkas. It was said it protected their family against evil. In a way, identifying themselves as the satan the mother warded the satan off. It was also the sign of strength and agency, a woman that is feared because she can out-satan the satan.
The Kichka's were later prohibited by Orthodoxy, which, like most other Abrahamic religions, fetishized the superiority of men. From their perspective a woman, like horse, is a commodity disallowed to have the agency and freedom to have her own. Their worth was largely attributed to the children they birthed. If the children were satisfactory, the woman was well regarded. If they didn't turn out good, she was shunned.
In Ira’s world, Satan Mare is a woman. When she smokes, the smoke from her cigarette becomes cognizant, forming into Cloud Horses. Some of the Cloud Horses are good, while others are evil; they burn down villages and kill livestock.
In Ira’s world, Satan Mare is a woman. When she smokes, the smoke from her cigarette becomes cognizant, forming into Cloud Horses. Some of the Cloud Horses are good, while others are evil; they burn down villages and kill livestock.
The villagers blame Satan Mare because the evil originates from her cigarette. Yet, Satan Mare does nothing but smoke.
Exhibition Details:
Opening Reception: June 21, 2025, 5–8 PM
Location: Galerie Shibumi, 13 Market Street, New York, NY
Duration: June 22 - July 20, 2025
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Sunday; 12 - 5 PM
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NEW DESIGN
HIGH SCHOOL
New Art, New Design
Opening Reception: June 6, 2025; 5 - 7 PM
On View: June 6 - 8 , 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)
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New Design High School Student Art Showcase
New York, NY – New Design High School and Galerie Shibumi present New Art. New Design., the inaugural exhibition of work made by students at a small, design-focused, public high school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, from June 6-8 at Galerie Shibumi, located at 13 Market Street, New York, NY. An opening reception on June 6th from 5-7 will open the show.
New Design High School seeks to break barriers in both public and design education, shaping a whole new paradigm of learning centered on students’ lived experiences, relationships, and community. Across our students’ four years at New Design, they will take classes across multiple disciplines – studio art, graphic design, 3D design, fashion and textiles - challenged creatively and critically to explore new directions and ideas in their work.
New Design High School uses design in all subjects to ignite the potential of our youth. Whether an ELA or Math class, we strive to honor the design process where students can ideate, test, and revise around problems.
Students come from all five boroughs of NYC, and for many, this is their first experience with design and arts education. As an unscreened public high school serving primarily BIPOC students, we are proud to provide students an excellent art & design education in order to equip them with the skills to tell their stories, start their creative careers, and lead a successful life in the arts.
“New Art. New Design.” represents the culmination of students’ year-long exploration in a variety of traditional, 2D, 3D, wearable, and experimental media, exploring concepts such as the self, art history, light and space, sustainability, and social justice. A student-run production, the work has been created and space curated by current students. The show also includes a collaborative project with students from Bard High School Early College.
An opening reception will take place on June 6th from 5-7PM, featuring student performances and music created by students affiliated with the Hip Hop Re:Education Project. The gallery welcomes visitors June 7-8 from 12-6PM.
Exhibition Details:
Opening Reception: June 6, 2025, 5–7 PM
Location: Galerie Shibumi, 13 Market Street, New York, NY
Duration: June 6 - 8, 2025
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Sunday; 12 - 5 PM
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Installation Shots Coming Soon
soft landing
Featuring Eliza Axelson-Chidsey, Jess Fügler, and Katharine.NF
Eliza would like to thank Pam Axelson, Joyce de Lemos, and Gregory Buntain.
Kate would like to thank David Gaynor, Laila Lott, Ak Jansen, and Michael Popp.
Jess would like to thank Kevin McCarthy.
On View: May 4 - 31, 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)
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An exhibition showcasing the innovative designs of Eliza Axelson-Chidsey, Jess Fügler, and Kate Ferguson, featuring furniture and sculptural works
New York, NY – Galerie Shibumi is proud to present “Soft Landing,” an exhibition celebrating Design Month. Join us for the opening reception Saturday,May 3, 2025, from 5 to 7 PM, at Galerie Shibumi, located at 13 Market Street, New York, NY.
Soft Landing is the first exhibition of its kind for three New York Design veterans, Eliza Axelson-Chidsey, Jess Fügler, and Kate Ferguson. Hosted by the new Two Bridges-based Galerie Shibumi, this will be its inaugural presentation during the art and design-laden month of May. With over four decades of combined professional experience in the design industry, Soft Landing acts as an introductory moment for the trio as they step out from the shadow of brands, corporations, and auxiliary roles.
While the pieces range from furniture to sculptural tassels, there is a shared affinity for color and materials. Largely the product of late nights, weekends, and stolen moments, the work is underpinned by rich narratives and personal philosophies.
Eliza Axelson-Chidsey’s pieces include large scale furnishings that combine an interest in 3D puzzles, standardized materials, and a quest for adiabatic design. Jess Fügler prompts the viewer to look closer at her whimsical combination of handcrafted details and industrial production in furniture and lighting inspired by personal memories. Kate Ferguson, working under the project name Katharine.NF, challenges conventions around ornament and functionality in decor to present vibrant, soft-sculptural forms that evoke feelings both tender and macabre.
Soft Landing juxtaposes these disparate practices as part laboratory, part demonstration, part celebration of the opportunity, and the audacity to make anything at all.
Jess Fügler is an American designer whose work explores ideas of narrative, process, and value in domestic objects. Inspired by past and current cultures along with industrial production and handcraft, Jess' work possesses a poetic playfulness driven by a hands-on approach to materials and making.
Originally from San Francisco, Eliza Axelson-Chidsey is a designer, artist, and curator based in New York City. Her interest in material culture is manifest in explorations of form, value, and ephemerality. Excited by research and concepts, and informed by her senses, she is regularly reminded how much learning is found through doing.
Katharine.NF is the Brooklyn, NY-based design-art practice of Kate Ferguson. Classifying her sculptural objects as “Alt Decor”, the project is interested in juxtaposing the dismissiveness of decoration with the use of bodily, biographical materials - all the while winking at their lack of function. Largely exhibiting work for the first time in New York last year, her work was shown with NADA, JonaldDudd, and Galerie Shibumi.
Exhibition Details:
Opening Reception: May 3, 2025, 5–7 PM
Location: Galerie Shibumi, 13 Market Street, New York, NY
Duration: May 4 - 31, 2025
Gallery Hours: Thursday - Sunday; 12 - 5 PM
For additional information, please contact: contact@galerieshibumi.com
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Not Today – Cyanotypes, Polaroids, Photograms, Digitals, Photo Emulsions and 35mm – A Photography Exhibit
Opening Reception : April 5, 2025; 5 - 8 PM
On View: April 6 - 13, 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)
Featuring Goldfinch Bolton, Joy Chen, Sheva Fruitman, Zina Gladiadis, Thais Glazman, Peter Grass, Ari Kim, Gyorgy Lorinczy, Katalin Lorincy, Andrea Matthews, Folana Miller, Richard Ogust,Ha Neul On, Sam Urdang, Alex Westfall, Zawadi
JOY RONG CHEN
BOBBIETOPIA(宝贝)
Opening Reception : March 8, 2025; 6 - 9 PM
With performance “NOT A PEEP SHOW” starting at 7 PM
On View: March 8, 2025 through March 30, 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown) - Basement Level
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Coming soon
ARI KIM
MAE-DEUP
Opening Reception: January 16, 2025; 7 - 9 PM
On View: January 17 through February 23, 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)
JOSIE GIRAND
THE TRICK
Opening Reception: December 5, 2024; 6 - 8 PM
On View: December 6, 2024 through January 5, 2025
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)
LIZ SCHEER
NOCTURAMA
On View: Through November 24, 2024
13 Market Street, Manhattan (Chinatown)