Praxis is pleased to present Harmonious Holobiont, a solo exhibition by artist Darlene Charneco. The show will be open from Thursday, November 17th to Saturday, January 14th, 2023.
The opening reception will be on Thursday, November 17th, from 6 to 8 pm.
We are open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm, at 501 W 20th Street, New York, NY, 10011.
Inspired by vivid dreams and studies of symbiosis in nature, Darlene Charneco’s works explore and navigate the layered spaces we live in, often presenting them as part of a growing organism. Developing her own tactile language, the artist creates three-dimensional, mixed-media ‘touchmaps’ to orient, sense, and express within a world that is continually shifting and changing through our expanded networks of communication. Charneco weaves nails together into wooden panels to create tactile topographical fields that gradually grow into new microscopy-like images within an evolving complex organism.
In Harmonious Holobiont, the artist continues her series of tapestry-like Letters to the Universe, in a practice of hammering out hopes and wishes for humanity and our planet, while asking for guidance and support for all beings in gradual co-evolution. The term Holobiont refers, specifically, to the concept of seeing ourselves as one complex entity including all the various species of the planet.
As Earth faces seemingly perpetual challenges of internal conflicts, war, climate change and disease, Charneco is inspired and motivated by studies of symbiosis in evolution, and glimpsed visions of mutualistic pathways forward. With scale-shifts of perspective, she hopes we may recognize the planet’s intricately interwoven diversity as our collective strength and understand each of our unique roles in its unfolding complex beauty.
In these weaves, positive wishes and visualizations for humanity are condensed to the hammering of each nail, and repeated many times, so that when sitting to work, the artist includes various concerns that have arisen throughout the creation of the piece. It is the process of renewing hope, determination and optimism in the accumulation of our collective small actions that the artist hopes we all can all relate to and be energized by.
As part of an ongoing vow and vision that underlies the artworks, Darlene Charneco has decided that a percentage from the sale of each piece will be distributed to help nourish a garden of global causes and nonprofit organizations that are working daily to bring a more benevolent, compassionate world into being.
