Recent Exhibitions
blue skies
Solo Exhibition
Bunker Projects, Pittsburgh, PA, Sept 6 - Oct 20 2024
Hey friend,
How are you? How could anyone possibly be? It feels as if we are bolting as people - throwing out our most dazzling flowers and our worst horrors - plummeting towards an end. And maybe we are nearing an end? Or maybe that is just what every generation thinks. I had a conversation with a friend this summer about being in constant oscillation between wanting to end it all and wanting to live forever. Sometimes that line becomes a circle, and the feelings coexist. I’m working in patterns lately, seeing them as a physical manifestation of time cycles, and building my own little time capsules.
I have been trying to process my feelings about moving away from Florida - a place I became so many versions of myself. The gulf, the swamp, the heat, the endless varieties of citrus, and the year-round growing season are now a part of me. I continue to grow things here, and it feels small but magical. My marigolds bloomed in a surprisingly brilliant yellow, and I see them as a mirror. Moments like this are when everything aligns. The light hits the water at just the right angle, and I see the green flash. The endless barrage of input and information changes frequency, and although the static does not stop, I can find space in it as a system I know how to navigate. I feel my feet below me on the sandy bottom. I lift, and float, and watch the clouds pass above. The water is warm, and I am water too. What makes it all make sense for you?
Blue skies,
Lucia
How are you? How could anyone possibly be? It feels as if we are bolting as people - throwing out our most dazzling flowers and our worst horrors - plummeting towards an end. And maybe we are nearing an end? Or maybe that is just what every generation thinks. I had a conversation with a friend this summer about being in constant oscillation between wanting to end it all and wanting to live forever. Sometimes that line becomes a circle, and the feelings coexist. I’m working in patterns lately, seeing them as a physical manifestation of time cycles, and building my own little time capsules.
I have been trying to process my feelings about moving away from Florida - a place I became so many versions of myself. The gulf, the swamp, the heat, the endless varieties of citrus, and the year-round growing season are now a part of me. I continue to grow things here, and it feels small but magical. My marigolds bloomed in a surprisingly brilliant yellow, and I see them as a mirror. Moments like this are when everything aligns. The light hits the water at just the right angle, and I see the green flash. The endless barrage of input and information changes frequency, and although the static does not stop, I can find space in it as a system I know how to navigate. I feel my feet below me on the sandy bottom. I lift, and float, and watch the clouds pass above. The water is warm, and I am water too. What makes it all make sense for you?
Blue skies,
Lucia
balance, suspended
Solo Pop-Up Installation
SMALLS, May 6, 2023
Hot House
Group Exhibition
Curated by Eva Conrad
Bunker Projects, January 6 - February 3, 2023
As late capitalism has slowly drifted toward a handmade movement, alongside the many have begun to indulge back in hand-making. Hot House brings together a diverse group ofartists whose work is part of the current resurgence of the pattern and decoration movement in response to the white washing minimalism of gentrification aesthetics. Instead, maximalism and vibrant color provide an aesthetic of optimism that gestures back to traditionally more democratic forms of folk art and craft.
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"No new idea is made until two stimuli are brought into relation with one another. This is why trusting feelings and chance in a moment to moment basis catalyzes creativity." - Eva Conrad
linger
Solo Exhibition
Campbellsville University, January 26 - February 23, 2023
My eyes are open but the lights are off. Quiet sets in, as I sit inside myself. The moment stretches and expands.
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Riffel’s animated works examine the dissociative realm of endless scrolling by creating meditative, liminal, spaces. Videos act as portals between the digital and physical planes. Grappling with the elasticity of time, these spaces oscillate between magic and monotony. The background comes to the forefront, time bends, and the instantaneous melds with the infinite.
Ctrl [Alt] Self
Lucia Riffel, Elise Thompson, Brittany Watkins
Curated by Allison Westerfield
Westobou, June 3 - August 6, 2022
Today, many people are steeped in a constant flow of information circulated by a variety of media.
Whether online or off, the scrolling content transfers from person to person, moving from screen to
memory and back. The message streams from all angles. An inundation of the virtual motivates
consumption in the material world. The digital realm feels inescapable to the extent that closing or turning
off our devices does not completely shield us from the constant flow. We are enveloped in distraction
seeking to find interiority.
Ctrl [Alt] Self refers to each individual's search for a place that rests between interiority and exteriority.
This exhibition features an interwoven dialogue between three female artists: Brittany M. Watkins, Lucia
Riffel, and Elise Thompson. Installation, painting, and video place the audience on a subliminal plane
where separate parcels of time and space depict facets of human interaction with the feed.
Whether online or off, the scrolling content transfers from person to person, moving from screen to
memory and back. The message streams from all angles. An inundation of the virtual motivates
consumption in the material world. The digital realm feels inescapable to the extent that closing or turning
off our devices does not completely shield us from the constant flow. We are enveloped in distraction
seeking to find interiority.
Ctrl [Alt] Self refers to each individual's search for a place that rests between interiority and exteriority.
This exhibition features an interwoven dialogue between three female artists: Brittany M. Watkins, Lucia
Riffel, and Elise Thompson. Installation, painting, and video place the audience on a subliminal plane
where separate parcels of time and space depict facets of human interaction with the feed.
The Eternal Present
A solo exhibition by Lucia Riffel
Curated by Dashboard
Tempus Projects April 22 - May 27, 2022
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Have you ever scrolled so far you found yourself?
A waking dream amidst the buzz of the everyday. Anxieties draining from the tip of your scrolling finger. Beyond sight, and into the realm of feeling. Alone, held, in the solace of your own being. Present. The Eternal Present poses the concept that dissociation through technology can provide a space for rest, reconnection, and processing. Enter the internal dimension where time and space become elastic. Quiet cosmic movements of the mundane hang thick in the air, slowly cycling into oblivion. Monotony mingles with the ethereal. Colors melt, portals open, and waves crash along illusory shores. The moment stretches, and pause sets in. |
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Images courtesy of the artist and Aleksandra Bugrii.