Summoning: Group exhibition

Brett Angell, Mike Glier, Ekua Holmes, Oliver Jeffers, Cathy Lu, Billie Mandle, Helina Metaferia, Joiri Minaya, Duke Riley, John Shen, Jean Shin, Yu-Wen Wu, Nicole Wilson

After five years in Brookline, Praise Shadows opened its doors in a newly renovated 2,000-square-foot space at 129 Kingston Street in the Leather District, at the nexus of Chinatown, Downtown Crossing, and the Financial District. The gallery’s office, private viewing room, and storage occupy an additional 2,000 square feet on an upper floor. Praise Shadows’ relocation to Boston—only 3.5 miles from the original location in Brookline—was part of Mayor Wu’s and the Downtown Boston Alliance’s initiative to attract creative enterprises to Downtown Boston. By reimagining vacant office and retail spaces as accessible venues for artistic production, performance, and community gathering, the initiative supports the continued revitalization of Boston's downtown, while cultivating economic vitality and a thriving creative ecosystem. 

Summoning was the gallery’s first group exhibition in the new space. The selected artworks “summoned” people, spirits, ideas, memories, secrets, truths, ancestors, and more. A notable new painting made for this show is by the Boston-born and raised Duke Riley, who recalls in true and fantastical details the vivid memories from his childhood on the streets of Downtown Crossing, just blocks from the new location, during the 1970s and 1980s. The show also features paintings and assemblage by Brett Angell, a painting inspired by nature and sound by Mike Glier, collage by Ekua Holmes, painting by Oliver Jeffers, ceramic sculpture by Cathy Lu, photographs by Billie Mandle, an audience-based participatory sculpture by Helina Metaferia, botanical paintings by Joiri Minaya, daguerreotypes by John Shen, sculptures by Jean Shin, large-scale work on paper by Yu-Wen Wu, and sculpture by Nicole Wilson.