Solar Music/Lunar Revel at Uffner & Liu
Closing August 15
Last summer, I reviewed Arcus at Rachel Uffner curated by Lucy Liu. Now the gallery has become Uffner & Liu, as Liu has joined the gallery as partner, and although she is not listed as curator, their summer group show Solar Music/Lunar Revel has Liu’s distinct curatorial style all over: figurative works exploring spirituality and nature, embedded within an overall frame of material softness. Understated, the bottom floor, representing the sun, and the top, the moon, present many beautiful, thoughtful moments. Anna Danyang Song’s ceramic diary sculptures are installed on a shelf and showcase her mastery of the craft, as do two glazed stoneware pieces Spring (2025) and Strolling (2025). Also on the second floor, Shuyi Cao’s hangs from the ceiling Xenophora IV (2025) combines organic and man-made materials—sea shells, fossils, but also plastics—reflecting both our earth and the sky body where space debris and stardust intermingle. Downstairs, upon entry, Moon Bud and Star Reacher are installed on plinths.
The show does not lean into predictions or astrology. There is enough of that in social contexts and perhaps Vittoria Benzine’s more humorous take on the future in her new Elephant column, where she will pull and read tarot cards for the art world, will help bring less weight to that frenzy. I like Katie Paterson’s ideas more, sharply presented in cut sterling silver installed on the wall: “a solar flare containing all the light in the universe” and “the milky way compressed into a diamond.” Sleek and exaggerated, to the point. As are Olivia Jia’s ewer and Wanda Koop’s moon, clean cut and crisp.
Artists in the exhibition explore nature as it intermingles with the man-made, whether it be fantasy, the built environment, or spirituality. In the back room, Laurie Nye’s oil on linen Le Bosquet in Pink and Emerald (2024) depicts the French painter Pierre Bonnard’s house, behind trees. Like Bonnard, Nye’s works is comprised of stylized pieces of her surroundings. She will be having a solo show with the gallery this fall. Next to it, Yulia Iosilzon’s oil painting With My Eyes Closed (2024), with its spheres, is more overtly spiritual. Angela Wei Down the Rabbit Hole (2025) speaks to a more psychedelic or nonsensical relationship to nature and our natural surroundings. Heidi Norton places pressed flowers on painted grounds, creating a bridge between the subject and the artist’s interpretation of it. Forming a narrative curatorial arc, the arc in Jia Sung’s Super Moon July (2024) subtly nods to Liu’s last summer group show.
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