A SOFT LANDING

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March 8th - April 12th 2025

Opening Reception: March 8th 5-8 pm with artist talk at 6 pm

Cleo the Project Space is pleased to present A Soft Landing, an exhibition with work by Sophia Belkin, Lou Breininger, Thomas Martinez Pilnik, and Aliyah Salmon. This show brings back four fiber artists that have previously shown at Cleo to celebrate contemporary themes in the textile world.

Sophia Belkin utilizes embroidery, digital printing on fabric and dye to achieve her kaleidoscope imagery. Inspired by the natural world, Belkin pieces together digitally manipulated images of greenery and flowerscapes with organic line stitching and psychedelic color bleeding to blend lush pieces of an evolved final puzzle. The work is built in equal parts by machine and by hand to achieve a multi-layered and textured form that landscapes a unique aesthetic field of vision with a knowledge of craft across the history of textile work.

With a shared inspiration from nature and a bleeding color scheme, Lou Breininger airbrushes acrylic paint onto carpet swatches to create sensational scenes of ripe lemons. The four exhibited works are prismatic, inducing the soft reference of watercolor on paper plus a divine appellation paired with the typical medium of airbrush found in t-shirt shops on boardwalks. The backdrop of carpet is the final exploration in a mix of references both high and low to create a distinct language of texture, character, and balance.

The tufted surface is also shown through the handiwork of Aliyah Salmon and Thomas Martinez Pilnik. Salmon creates surreal sets through the use of familiar iconography and melodrama. Building up scenarios that feature gradients of color, bold mark making, and cloudy skies, these hand tufted landscapes are cinematic in their ultimate pairings. These pairings explore Black femininity through subconscious considerations that hold signs through culturally significant objects. The slow process of repetition while using an Oxford punch needle to create these works is a meditation on craft and handmade design.

In slight contrast Thomas Martinez Pilnik uses a tufting gun to create his works. These works include everyday objects imbued with significance in their recreation including a place setting with ceramic renderings of cigarette butts, chicken bones, and orange skins. This piece stands as testimony to a familiar and everyday event, while 8 Out of 10 Melanoma stands as a symbol of the extraordinary as a replica of the diagram that was drawn on Pilnik’s stomach before his first cancer surgery.

Sophia Belkin (b. Moscow, Russia) currently lives and works in Baltimore. Sophia’s practice employs a combination of dye painting, photography, generative AI, and embroidery to consider themes of ecological change, growth, and mutation. She earned her BFA in drawing and printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has participated in residency programs with the Vermont Studio Center, ACRE, Rogaland Kunstsenter, NCCA in Kronstadt, and the Narva Art Residency in Estonia. Recent solo exhibitions include Slice of Water at Dinner Gallery in New York, Peeling Shadows at Ochi Gallery in Los Angeles, and Ground Swell at Resort Gallery in Baltimore.

sophiabelkin.com / @bophiaselkin

Lou Breininger (b. Hagerstown, MD) received a BFA in Painting from Arcadia University (Glenside, PA) and an MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art (Bloomfield Hills, MI). They have shown at General Projects in Los Angeles, CA, Outer Space in Concord, NH, and High Tide in Philadelphia, PA. They currently live and work in Los Angeles, California.

annabreininger.com / @abreininger

Aliyah Salmon received a BFA in Textile Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. Abigail Ogilvy Gallery in Boston, MA, Crybaby Gallery in Toronto, CAN, and Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

aliyahsalmon.com / @aliyah_salmon

Thomas Martinez Pilnik (b. 1993) was raised in London by Brazilian parents. Pilnik then moved to the US and obtained his BA in Studio Art and Cognitive Science from the University of Virginia, M.Ed in Postsecondary Education from the University of Southern California, and MFA from the University of Connecticut. He is now based in Los Angeles. Pilnik has exhibited internationally in spaces including Moosey Gallery and Arusha in London, SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York, Zaratan Arte Contemporânea in Lisbon, and Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles, and has created installations and works in collaboration with organizations such as the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health and Downtown Providence Parks Conservancy. He has been an artist-in-residence at Zaratan, McKenzie Gibson Studios in Rhode Island, Stove Works in Tennessee, Art House San Clemente, and has an upcoming session at The Wassaic Project in Upstate New York.

tmpilnik.com / @tmpilnik