RAINFAINT WINDTHIN: Emily Elliott, Joy Feasley, and Paul Swenbeck
Runs / January 10 – February 23, 2025
Reception / Friday, January 10, 6-9 PM
Hours: Sat-Sun from 2-6 PM
This winter, Grizzly Grizzly presents Rainfaint Windthin, a three-person collaborative exhibition that brings together artists Emily Elliott, Joy Feasley, and Paul Swenbeck to explore perceptual experience and constructed realities.
In 2019, Emily, Joy, and Paul were on a walk in Philadelphia’s John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge when they experienced a unique weather phenomenon. They witnessed a waterspout approaching across the wetland landscape. As it neared, the waterspout created a microclimate of wind, sound, and cold air before it dissipated into the woods behind the trail. The invisible force that plowed through the rushes felt to all an otherworldly entity, charging like a ghostly freight train filled with mysterious energies. This exhibition attempts to describe this happening through multiple viewpoints shaped by time, accentuating the difference between individual memories within a shared experience.
To tell this story, the trio divides the space of Grizzly Grizzly into two distinct zones: one that recalls the watery marsh of Tinicum, and one that represents the viewing areas that dot the park. The marsh is populated by the ephemeral waterspout and its magical power. The viewing area is a place to slow down and take in the imagined landscape from a place of quiet contemplation and curious exploration.
To express the vision of this specter, the artists use light and sound to convey the individual thoughts of these artists. Acrylic reflections of colored mirrors which fill the white void of the gallery are activated by turning lights, creating a silvery, dream-like environment. The space is brimming with the live sound of raspy bells and the gentle buzzing and hissing of devices invented by the trio to set a mood of an agitated drone. Emily, Joy, and Paul each display individual artworks that describe the entity in shorthand riffs. Whether each sees a magnetic field, spirit, or monster, the three artists in Rainfaint Windthin have a single objective: to make the invisible visible.
Artist Bios:
Emily Elliott, originally from Kissimmee, FL, studied at Southeastern Illinois College and Southern Illinois University Carbondale, earning bachelor’s degrees in Painting and Studio Art with a minor in Art History in 2012. Elliott completed her master’s degree at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2015. Influenced by a sense of quiet vastness and the sublime connections between the celestial and terrestrial, she creates works that span sculpture, printmaking and assemblage, aiming to mimic atmospheric phenomena intertwined with emotional responses. As an arts and museum worker, she is committed to fostering and supporting Philadelphia’s artistic community.
Joy Feasley, born in Buffalo, NY, earned her BFA in Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She also studied at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Feasley’s work, which often explores themes of light, nature, and mysticism, spans painting, installation, and collaborative projects. She has exhibited widely, including at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art, and Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin; and the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, NC. Her work is included in collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the West Collection. A recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2011, Feasley has participated in numerous artist residencies, including at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Stelo Arts in Oregon, and the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA. Feasley frequently collaborates with her husband, Paul Swenbeck, on immersive installations that merge their shared interests in craft, folklore, and the supernatural.
Paul Swenbeck, originally from Salem, MA, studied ceramics at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. His multidisciplinary practice spans sculpture, painting, and photography, often drawing on themes of craft, the occult, and spiritualism filtered through his distinctive perspective. Swenbeck’s work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Institute of Contemporary Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. His installations often incorporate handmade and found materials to create immersive environments, including a recent permanent commission with Joy Feasley for the Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Swenbeck’s work is included in the West Collection in Pennsylvania and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. A recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2013, Swenbeck has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada; Watershed and Haystack in Maine; and Stelo Arts in Oregon. Together with Feasley, he continues to explore the intersections of art, mysticism, and storytelling through their collaborative projects.