Interviews by Brainard Carey

photo by Janna Tew Sophie Haulman is a Brooklyn-based ceramicist and sculptor from Wilmington, North Carolina. She received her BFA (2019) from Virginia Commonwealth University’s department of Sculpture + Extended Media. While maintaining her practice, she is also a ceramics teacher and works in ceramic production and fabrication. Her evolving work explores the sensuality of space, the body and the unknown through material-based experimentation, contemplation on process, investigation of tactile form, and a constant surrender to fate.   “every month grass came” is a contemplation on mortality and the temporary nature of all that we possess – our bodies, relationships, experiences, memories, desires. As beings of the natural world, we evolve, erode, disintegrate; how do we construct a coherent sense of identity from an existence that is ever-changing?  These ceramic works question and explore these themes of impermanence, loss, and the unknown through a material which has the capacity to long outlast our own bodies while bearing moments of our time within it. Its physical fragility but potential for permanence challenges the transitory nature of self. Sophie Haulman reflects on the idea of resiliency as crucial to surviving one’s evolution.  Haulman’s work is just as much about the labor and fate of process as it is about the result, considering “process” as both an action and a passage of time. Each piece was handbuilt with slow, methodical, repetitive movements encapsulated within the material body, resulting in forms that question themselves and occlude the transformations of their identities.  The title and show are dedicated to Steffan Elijah Haulman, the artist’s deceased brother. His photo, seen daily on the side of her refrigerator, is held up by four contemplative word magnets that have become a kind of mantra: every | month | grass | came.  Sophie Haulman reckon with, or memento mori 2, 2025 Ceramic, glaze 60 × 60 × 3/4 in 152.4 × 152.4 × 1.9 cm. photo by Sophie Haulman Sophie Haulman, the well, or memento mori 1, 2025 Ceramic, glaze 13 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 19 1/2 in 34.3 × 49.5 × 49.5 cm, photo by Janna Tew Left to Right – Sophie Haulman Untitled 2, 2025 Ceramic 18 × 8 × 10 in 45.7 × 20.3 × 25.4 cm, Untitled 1, 2025 Ceramic 18 × 8 × 9 in 45.7 × 20.3 × 22.9 cm. photo by Sophie Haulman

Elijah Gowin uses photography to speak about ritual, landscape and memory.  He was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1967 and received his BA in Art History from Davidson College in 1990 and MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico in 1997. His photographs are in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, among others.   His awards include the John S. Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 as well as grants from the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Puffin Foundation.  He founded Tin Roof Press to publish his books on art and photography including “The Last Firefly” in 2024 and “Of Falling and Floating” in 2011.  Presently, he is a Professor in the Department of Media, Art and Design at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he directs photographic studies.  Gowin is represented by the Robert Mann Gallery, New York, Photo Gallery International, Tokyo and Bond Millen Gallery, Richmond, Virginia. Elijah Gowin, Tree 1. Date: 2012 Size: 15.33x 23, Pigment inkjet print Elijah Gowin, fireflies in trees, selangor river, malaysia, 2017 Size: 22”x30.75” Elijah Gowin, House 1 Date: 2014. Size: 15.33”x 23” Pigment inkjet print

James Horner is a queer chronicler who educates the public and diverts discrimination from his community. Horner focuses on ordinary queer folk, their issues, and LGBTQ+ icons like Marsha P. Johnson, a rights activist. The artist focuses on painting, but also experiments with drawings, sculptures, and zines. Using a simple color palette, Horner starts his figurative works with a line drawing and develops them to be muscular, abstract, and sometimes humorous. A native New Yorker, Horner has an M.F.A. in painting from Lehman College and is an artist and board member at the Amos Eno Gallery in Manhattan. He has a 40-year retrospective exhibition at the gallery, “Making of an American Dandy,” as well as an exhibit, “Queer Today – Love, Power, Freedom,” with his art collective, Magenta Lounge. Horner exhibits artwork mainly around the United States – at The Bronx Museum, The Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery, Satchel Projects, public art shows in Chicago, and The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. Recent residencies include the DNA Artists Residency and Atelier Artist Residency, and his work has appeared in Out and Advocate magazines. Friday Night Throwdown,” 2010, Acrylic, paper, fabric, and marker on canvas, 95” x 48” “Keith Haring – Pop Icon,” 2024, Acrylic on paper, 22” x 30” “Homebody,” 2024, Acrylic and leather/metal belt on canvas, 22” x 28”

Jeanine Brito (b. 1993, Germany) is a painter living and working in Montréal, Canada. Layered in theatrical and fairy tale imagery, she uses her likeness to play with ideas of gender and desire. Her paintings have permeated the cultural consciousness, appearing in Harris Reed’s debut runway collection for Nina Ricci, on an album cover by Clara Luciani, on the cover of the highly reviewed debut novel by Sophie Kemp, and many other crossover collaborations. Recent exhibitions include All the Better to Eat You With, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2025), The Amber of This Moment, Nicodim, Bucharest (2025), The Grumpy Girls, Nicodim, New York (2024), The Invitation: A Fairytale by Jeanine Brito, Nicodim Upstairs, Los Angeles (2023), So Softly and Sweetly, La Causa Galeria, Madrid (2022), You Me Me You curated by Rachel Keller, Nicodim, Los Angeles (2022), New Mythologies II, Huxley Parlour, London (2022). All the Better to Eat You With, 2025 acrylic on canvas 66 x 94 in. 167.6 x 238.8 cm The Lovers, 2025 acrylic on canvas 66 x 50 in. 167.6 x 127 cm Good Girls, 2025 acrylic on canvas 66 x 50 in. 167.6 x 127 cm Impresario, 2025 acrylic on canvas 34 x 26 in. 86.4 x 66 cm

Ryan Crotty earned his BFA in painting from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and his MFA in painting from Syracuse University. His work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Recent solo shows include a solo presentation at Untitled Art with High Noon, Miami, FL; Ever So Slightly Off, Rutger Brandt Gallery, Amsterdam, NL; and Underlying Issues, Galerie Robertson Ares, Montreal, QC. Recent group exhibitions include The Stage is Yours! curated by Eric Gauthier, Exo Gallery, Stuttgart, DE; Spectrum, Galerie Bessaud, Paris, FR; and Tone Poem, The Hole, Los Angeles, CA. His work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, Hyperallergic, Artillery, and Design Milk. Crotty lives and works in Auburn, Nebraska. Ryan Crotty, “Sub Rosa,” 2025, acrylic, gloss gel, and modeling paste on linen, 36″ x 30″ Ryan Crotty, “Get a Move On,” 2025, acrylic gloss gel, and modeling paste on line, 60″ x 48″ Ryan Crotty, “Exit Strategy,” 2025, acrylic, gloss gel, and modeling paste on linen, 48″ x 36″