Hollis Taggart

Curated by Glenn Adamson and Severin Delfs and spanning two Chelsea gallery spaces, Drop, Cloth is a group show that presents a 50-year lineage of draping in contemporary art, both in the literal sense in which the substrate of the canvas is activated, and in the representational sense, where textile forms are depicted. The exhibition will also navigate the social implications of textile and drapery as a feminist intervention and a method of identity exploration. Proudly co-presented by Susan Inglett Gallery and Hollis Taggart, Drop, Cloth will have an opening reception on the evening of Thursday, December 11th at both galleries, but will be open to the public beginning on December 4. The exhibition is accompanied by a physical catalogue with illustrations of works and essays by both Adamson and Delfs. Image Caption: Jenny Brillhart, Fabric from the Lakso House, 2025, Oil on panel, 30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm). © Jenny Brillhart, courtesy of the artist.

Hollis Taggart Downtown is pleased to present Afterlight, Rachel MacFarlane’s second solo exhibition with Hollis Taggart since joining its roster in 2022. The paintings in this exhibition speak to new forms of exploration in the artist’s practice: the richly jewel-toned landscapes for which MacFarlane is known retain their speculative aura while incorporating formal and conceptual possibilities of sunlight, particularly after her research trip to Spain in 2024. The exhibition will be on view at Hollis Taggart Downtown from January 9 to February 21, 2026, with an opening reception on Friday, January 9, from 6 to 8pm. Around the time she was embarking on this new body of work, MacFarlane began rekindling knowledge of wild plants through attending foraging workshops. As a result – although the landscapes of MacFarlane’s paintings are based only loosely on memories of specific places – most of the plants and flora in these new paintings are real and identifiable: hoary mountain mint that is common to Jamaica Bay, olive trees in Spain (where farmers told her that they cannot be grown naturally anymore due to increased sunlight from recent climate changes), poppies, dandelions, and morning glories, to name a few. The smaller works on paper capture events in the landscape or specific natural phenomena. Inspired by visionary painters like William Blake, Charles Burchfield, and Hilma af Klint, MacFarlane’s new works retool biblical, revelatory imagery of the unknowable and the sublime – as they relate to climate and the weather – into imaginary landscapes that look both pre-historic as well as post-human or survivalist. These new works suggest that such landscapes may lie in the not-too distant future, but at the same time look intensely speculative, as if straight out of a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin or Octavia Butler. MacFarlane’s landscapes might exist in the future in the aftermath of some cataclysmic event (as alluded to in the title of the show, Afterlight) but may not be accessible or viewable to any human. MacFarlane’s works expand on the long-standing genre of landscape painting to account for current ecological pressure on natural spaces. Her works speak to our complicated relationship to the natural world, in light of climate crises and the proliferation of digital, simulated landscapes that act as a form of surrogate landscapes. To begin her studio process, MacFarlane constructs paper maquettes within small, shallow boxes to initiate each painting. These maquettes function almost as scientific experiments, as the artist plays with different light colors and shadows. The paintings then evolve into speculative fiction, illustrating the changing landscape or envisioning its potential future – one taken over by flora, fabricated and rebuilt, and full of unknown phenomena. New ideas for works are often triggered by expeditions to different sites; MacFarlane chooses places purposefully based on their ecologies to get a pulse on various kinds of current environmental changes. Born in Scarborough, Canada, Rachel MacFarlane received her MFA from Rutgers University in 2016. She has had solo exhibitions at Norberg Hall Gallery, Calgary; MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie; Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto; Super Dutchess Gallery, New York; Mason Gross Art Gallery, Rutgers University; Anna Leonowens Gallery, NSCAD Halifax; and Howard Park Institute, Toronto. Her works have also been exhibited in Florence, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. MacFarlane was awarded a 2021 and 2019 Canada Council for the Arts Explore and Create Grant, a 2019 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, 2019 Vermont Studio Center Residency, 2015 Ontario Arts Council Grant, and the Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence at Fool's Paradise in Scarborough, Ontario, among numerous other awards. Her work is in public and private collections including Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, Jim and Susan Hill Collection, Equitable Bank, Stikeman Elliot, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and The Donovan Collection at the University of Toronto. She has provided numerous artist talks including Concordia University, University of Toronto, OCAD University, NSCAD University and Sheridan College.