Casa Otro is pleased to present The Growing Edge, a group exhibition.

All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. 

Howard Thurman

The Growing Edge is a group exhibition of nine artists who formed an online community of critique, care and support during the COVID-19 pandemic.  While this group of women began conversing initially due to their shared role as mentors in the Artist/Mother Podcast Crit Group program--a podcast and online critique program with international reach--their dialogue quickly expanded and deepened. Near daily video chat conversations using the social media app Marco Polo cultivated a remarkably intimate ongoing dialogue about studio practice, ideas prompting the creation of work, and the specific challenges of being an artist and a mother during a global pandemic. Paradoxically, in a time of social separation, these nine women found themselves deeply enmeshed in a rich and nourishing community of artists, their conversation un-deterred by pandemic or time-zones.  

Many of the artists will travel to New Mexico to be present for this one night event and will be meeting for the first time in person.  

The exhibition’s title, pulled from the writing of philosopher, theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman, speaks to the complexity of discovering connection amidst seclusion. What is found when a limitation, a boundary, a border or an edge expands, breathes or grows? What is gained?  What is lost?  What emerges?  Such questions flow between the studios of these nine artists, linking their range of exploration in painting, video, collage, printmaking, textile, sculpture and performance art. The Growing Edge is a conversation between nine works from these artists/mothers made during a season of contemplation and recovery while processing the COVID-19 pandemic, inviting reclamation and restoration of space, time and growth.  

Artists:

Kaylan Buteyn, Fort Wayne, IN http://www.kaylancreates.com/

Karen Dana Cohen, Chicago, IL https://karendanacohen.com/

Dyana Gravina, London, United Kingdom https://dyanagravina.com/ 

Jodi Hays, Nashville, TN https://jodihays.com/ 

Alice Stone-Collins, Atlanta, GA https://www.alicestonecollins.com/ 

Isadora Stowe, Las Cruces, NM https://isadorastowe.com/home.html 

Sarah Sudhoff, Houston, TX https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/ 

Barbara Campbell Thomas, Climax, NC https://barbaracampbellthomas.com/home.html

Beth Welch, Baton Rouge, LA http://www.bethwelchart.com/work