Evan Galbicka and Phyllis Yao “An Anemone Smiles at Me”

Evan Galbicka and Phyllis Yao “An Anemone Smiles at Me”

Ed. Varie

This event has ended.

Ed. Varie presents An Anemone Smiles at Me, a two person exhibition with artists Evan Galbicka, and Phyllis Yao.

Phyllis Yao is a second generation Chinese-American who grew up between Guiyang, China where her mom resides permanently, and New York with her dad’s family. In her deeply personal drawings and paintings, cosmic and mythic scenes are constructed and manifested. By drawing from her personal history, Yao’s paintings are a means to unify disconnected relationships. Reoccurring celestial and spiritual forms, like moons and angels are almost made to feel indistinguishable from one another. They become interchangeable metaphors for the cosmic scale of maternal love. In her painting titled “Mt. Mushikura (mom and me),” an ethereally painted head of her mother gazes alongside her own at a sky shared by both sun and moon. Their heads float monumentally above water, before Mt. Mushikura. Yao emanates the truth of bonds inseparable by land, sea, and sky. Her culturally eastern and western backgrounds are also separations reconnected through painting. In her work, physical distance is eclipsed by deepened psychic closeness.

Evan Galbicka’s current sculptural works extrapolates the form and process of Eisenia fetida, the common earthworm also known as red wigglers. As the result of adaption, Eisenia fetida are a species of earthworm that play a vital role in improving soil and plant health, and biodiversity. They are detritivores that break down organic waste compounds into essential nutrients necessary for plant growth. Their gut biome propagate beneficial bacteria that transmit nutrients to plants that boost the human immune system when consumed. By collaborating with select red wigglers, Galbicka’s sculptures act as a vermiculture compost system in which form mimics the function and anatomy of earthworms. Organic waste matter is transformed by the wigglers inside of the sculptures, producing vermicast. Galbicka’s sculptures show a devotion to organic form and celebrates the magic and metaphor of nature. By contextualizing the process of Eisenia fetida as a human-scale visual sculpture, the digestive process of these earthworms becomes something to be considered visually and therefore intellectually. The natural and adapted process of these worms illuminate the value of breaking down whole things into comprehensible essences.

As a devotee of organic form, Evan Galbicka creates sculpture and installation that speaks of processes of change. He explores intuitive mark-making through surface, image, and form to channel animalistic interactions with vibrant materials. Since earning his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from VCU in 2018, Evan found a resonant chord that drives his practice through the intersection of art and ecology. He attended a two-month residency on sustainability at SOMA in Mexico City in 2018, and is currently working on an ecological art commission for Pulp Studios in Gainesville, Florida.

Evan Galbicka (b. 1986) earned his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018, and has since found a resonant chord that drives his practice through the intersection of art and ecology. He attended a two-month residency on sustainability at SOMA in Mexico City in 2018, and is currently working on an ecological art commission for Pulp Studios in Gainesville, Florida.

Phyllis Yao (b. 1994) graduated with a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design where she received the Florence Leif Award. In 2017 she was an artist-in-residence at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan province, China. Yao has recently exhibited at select group exhibitions at Pilot Projects, Philadelphia, Ed. Varie, New York and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York.

Media

• Painting
• Sculpture

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