Grit of Hearth Beyond the Brambles
Zakariya Abdul-Qadir, Nicholas Diaz, Glen Eden Einbinder, Danielle Gadus, Tony Griego, William Kim, Ethan Shoshan, Anna Shukeylo, and Sarah Valeri
Curated by Yasmeen Abdallah
January 24 - February 15, 2026
Opening reception, January 24, 2026, 6-8 PM
At a time when the world is heavy, full of peril, loss and heartache, each moment is an opportunity to reshape what we find value, meaning and intention in. As artists making our way and searching for a place of belonging, we consider what it means to coexist within various ecospheres: neighborhoods, the expanses of greater New York, throughout the country, and across the globe. This exhibition considers the work of cultural producers within the context of care, as pathways of compassion and beacons of ingenuity. Actions intertwining in tandem, our souls push back against negativity to make space for solace and solidarity. Through a sensitive range of forms and concepts, the artists echo the heartbeats of their environments. Traces of these tender reflections extend beyond the studio into the collective atmosphere we build in community.
Grit of Hearth Beyond the Brambles is built through a sensitive appreciation of the fluidity between the work of each artist, overlapping and tenderly spilling into an atmospheric realm to sit and reflect. The works are deftly conceived with intention and integrity through a variety of techniques and philosophies, underscoring the proficiency and dexterity of each artist to create a metaphorical collective net that signifies supporting one another when we are vulnerable, and laying a strong foundation for the world we want to create in unity. Here, and together, we cultivate an environment that expands outwardly into the corners of society where it’s needed most. This deftly woven microcosm is a mirror of what we can reimagine in challenging times, underscoring the healing that occurs in each of the artists’ practices, one ripple at a time.
William Kim’s evocative work speaks through poetry and gestures that are wickedly smart, sensitive, and playful. We are placed in liminal states between childhood, adolescence and adulthood, where emotions are blurred in beautiful varnished washes that heighten the sensorial, swaying us gently between states of joy, contemplation, recollection, and longing. Kim’s energy extends from the work profoundly and fiercely: warm, cool, worldly, and welcoming. Freedom and security are interlocked, what may seem distinct is in fact two sides of the same coin, or two hula hoops conjoined as a mirrored key to unlock the fearlessness we need to face what holds us back most. The genius in this work is entwined with its seeming simplicity; indeed, all is not what it seems, and looking inward deeply is the way forward.
Danielle Gadus explores life through tactile gravitational forces, and through thoughtful persistence. Through various processes, including hand-dying fabric, Gadus creates stunning floating sculptures and installations that are reliant on suspension, weight, and tension. Reinforcements are kept to a minimum, challenging the durability of the materials, and acknowledging the precarity of the medium. This feeling is intertwined with nature, resulting in an ethereal experience. Gadus asks us to embrace the moment of suspension; to lean into the slight shifts as the building settles or the air moves ever so slightly, holding the most gentle breath as something monumental and utterly profound. Light and airy, Gadus’ work juxtaposes the weight of the world in beautiful forms that transcend and inspire infinitely.
Zakariya Abdul-Qadir moves through the world building connections with people through meaningful, heartfelt conversations and portraiture. These moments take place in his native and beloved home of Brooklyn, as he thoughtfully responds to the impromptu encounters he happens upon. There is a patience, a respect, and a deep humanitarian sensitivity that is apparent in Abdul-Qadir’s work. Through a transcribing process from conversation, to film photography, to painting, slowness and stillness feel reverent and personable. Abdul-Qadir touchingly reflects on humankind and the sharing of moments thoughtfully, and resonantly, with utter depth and poignancy.
Anna Shukeylo also channels the lived experience through painting, while looking out onto the world at night. The vignettes in the Hudson Heights series explore an inside/out dynamic reminiscent of a Rear Window aesthetic that juxtaposes the intimate with what’s on display. Shukeylo explores these forces by focusing on the intensity of city life that draws us into the screens that distract from what’s happening outside our windows and walls; an insular buffer designed to keep people apart. Created during the pandemic, these paintings summon the isolation felt in that moment. Experienced today, they serve as a poignant reminder of the feeling of loneliness and solitude, lighting the way toward the path forward and into the future we are creating collectively. In the context of this exhibition, and as with Abdul-Qadir’s paintings, the works underscore the significance of blending the domestic with the collective, and bridging equitable forms of comfort and belonging as we cultivate environments that are at once nurturing, replenishing and self-sustaining.
Ethan Shoshan uses textiles to draw us into moments that intimately honor and cherish through loving and painstaking applications, where each thread is a line in a sonnet. Like Abdul-Qadir and Shukeylo, Shoshan draws from specific environments to depict the emotional components of place, grit, persistence, and home. This hook rug becomes a portrait, bestowed lovingly on a wall, a scale close to human-size, where viewers can envision that staircase vividly within their own memories. This staircase is a part of Shoshan's experience of home as both concept and experience, drawing connections to our own memories of growing up, looking inward, coming out, finding our place amongst our chosen families and paths in the world. As we gaze with appreciation, marveling at its labor and process, we can relate to the signage that reminds us with charming directness: your art journey begins here. For many of us, this is the stairwell we continue to climb, embracing each step with a similar perseverance and determination. Another Place, Another Time, Another Life… (Your Art Journey Begins Here) honors queer history through its powerful tribute, and an achingly beautiful reminder of that special place that feels like home to each of us.
Nicholas Diaz fully immerses himself in the world of ceramics. The starfish serve as guides from the sea to this new world that is yet to be built, channeling the power of all the bodies of water to serve as simulacrum: constellations and north stars that guide into uncharted territories to places we may not yet have been, but have long dreamed of. What may become severed is never really gone if we refuse to accept it: like our determination, the starfish reconstitutes itself when wounded, and patience, perseverance and determination fortify the spirit needed to keep the grit of our dreams alive.
Glen Eden Einbinder’s approach is brilliantly detailed, curious and ingenuitive. Gently traversing across two and three dimensional planes, it engagingly folds in on itself, evolving its skeletal structure at a whim. Morphing in amorphous and anthropomorphic shape-shifting manners, its structural form feels geometric, reptilian, cellular, and architectural all at once. Einbinder’s work could easily exist in another dimension: marbling swirls feel reminiscent of planetary realms, cosmic, awesome and utterly transformative. Holding a magnetic charge, it summons from deep inside the earth’s core. Playful and serious, the mathematical and the creative come together in harmonious sync, bridging the two sides of the brain with a delightful nuance that speaks to the starfish created by Diaz: the two forms communicate in a dialogue that is deeply intuitive and out of human range.
Tony Griego dazzlingly engages with beautiful defiance that lovingly and unabashedly celebrates kitsch, queerness, and delicious decadence. Griego’s work is a celebration of living life with aplomb, while welcoming everyone to join the festivities. Through a DIY, punk aesthetic, we are reminded to revel in the absurdist, the grotesque, and the gloriously honest, as a call to uplift community, and make each day count, in our truest and purest forms. The scars are bewitching reminders to live in the present, with everything we’ve got. These badges are skillfully crafted with courage and distinction. The cracks in the facades we witness are spilling forth the glamor from within; their magic oozing with glistening clarity, care and exuberance.
Sarah Valeri’s A Voice Still demonstrates the power in digging deeply and finding strength and grit in healing. The bells underscore that there is such beauty in the cracks and remnants; just as walking through the fire makes one resilient. Imperfections defy the pitfalls of facades and frivolity; and Valeri invites us to experience this transcendence through direct interaction with the work through therapeutic and physical ways. This mode of receiving, learning, listening, and growing is lovingly cultivated by Valeri as a means of bringing people together, earnestly and honestly.
Be careful with my heart, you whisper
The tender spots are raw and worn
Calluses caused by callousness
But not in here
Where we seek shelter
We mourn, we mend, we forage, we make
Do and when the seeds are gathered
They are planted for sustenance
For this long winter
As for the winters of our children
When the winds may change direction
Caretaking of the nutrients in the soil
As ancestors have done since time immemorial
We make shelter
We build, we dream, we comfort, we strive
For a better world than we inherited
In this long season of gloom
We reckon
We beckon
We collectivize
We mobilize
Casting nets and building nests
Beauty and splendor to behold
What we once lacked is now within reach
If you know where to look
The roots are home base
Hidden beneath the soil in plain view
Beyond the bark, beyond the brambles
We’ll find each other
Where the sea is up
Looking down at the moon
Where the fish sing lullabies
And the stars swim in the clouds
Under a warm blanket of sand that envelopes a galaxy
That’s when you will know
That you’ve found your place
Amongst the dreamers and doers
In a hole nestled within
Liberated and free
Welcoming you into the hearth of grit
-Yasmeen Abdallah, Curator
ARTIST BIOS
Zakariya Abdul-Qadir is a Brooklyn based artist whose work moves between painting, print and mixed media to explore identity, memory, and the emotional residue of everyday life. He recently graduated from Pratt Institute with an MFA in Painting and Drawing and has exhibited throughout New York State. He is co-founder of With Friends Like These magazine and serves as a curatorial member at Below Grand. His work has been featured in The Art Newspaper and HyperAllergic.
Nicholas Diaz is a ceramicist based in Sayreville, NJ. His work has been included in national and statewide competitions including Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and National Skutt Peep in Minnesota. Diaz earned his BFA studio art at Kean University, where he is now pursuing an MA in Art Education. Diaz also teaches ceramics at the Montclair Art Museum, Have a Nice Clay, and Middlesex College
Glen Eden Einbinder was born in Brooklyn, New York where he also currently lives and works. Some time in between he lived in Los Angeles and attended California Institute of the Arts. Most recently he was the subject of a documentary film portrait “Glen Eden” which was included in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
Glen has participated in art shows in Los Angeles and New York City and collaborative projects in: Minneapolis MN, Greensboro NC, New Jerusalem PA, Manila, Philippines and The Hague, Netherlands. He did a year-long residency at The Center for Book Arts and his Dreamcard drawings have been published in the fiction anthology My Apocalypse.
Danielle Gadus received her MFA in Integrated Practices from Pratt Institute and was awarded the Pratt Graduate Fellowship and Virginia Pratt Thayer Scholarship. She has recently exhibited with Bridget Donahue (New York, NY), The Source Space (Lake Hill, NY), WIG (CDMX), Pulse Projects (New York, NY), among others. At Pratt Institute, she hosted an “artist non-talk,” served as a guest critic for undergraduate fashion and painting classes, and facilitated the Visiting Artist Lecture Series. She participated in the Casa Lu Sur residency in CDMX. Danielle also regularly hosts and curates salon-style exhibitions, performances, workshops, and happenings in her home studio.
Tony Griego (he/him) is a visual artist whose work explores attention, identity, mortality, and spectacle. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his BFA at the University of Utah and his MFA at Pratt Institute. Tony has exhibited and worked in Australia, Utah, and New York, including at Queer Spectra Arts, Underbelly Arts, and Liveworks Art Festival. He’s currently working on a magazine of poetry, essays, photography, and drawings focused on being an elder millennial gay guy witnessing late stage capitalism.
William Kim is a creative, they live nomadic and spend little money on material. Lately they moved to LA to learn from kids. Kim's work has been featured in Synchron Magazine (2021), Artforum (2024), and Apocalypse Magazine (2025).
Ethan Shoshan is an artist, activist, curator, writer, and social ecologist based in New York City. He also works behind the scenes as a nonprofit tech consultant and installation handler, supporting cultural and activist spaces. His multidisciplinary practice includes drawing, textiles, found materials, performance, and storytelling, often rooted in social practice and community engagement. Ethan's work centers the overlooked and everyday—objects and gestures that serve as prosthetic extensions of the self, embodying memory, function, and meaning. For decades, he has documented disappearing traces of queer life and underground art in NYC, treating art as a form of witnessing and catharsis.
Anna Shukeylo (b. St. Petersburg, Russia) is a NY/ NJ based artist, curator, and educator. Working primarily with acrylics and mixed media on a wide variety of surfaces, her paintings are autobiographical in nature, reflecting her everyday life, and observations, as well as ephemeral memories of moments and places from her past and present. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at Kean University, NJ, Manchester University, IN, and in group shows at Auxier/Kline, Equity Gallery, Stay Home Gallery, among others.
Sarah Valeri is an artist and art therapist based in Brooklyn. A painter for decades, she has recently been imagining bodies of sound, air, and time through drawing and creation of instruments no one can teach you to play. Her works have appeared at the Museo Exconvento Tiripetío, Michoacán, Mexico, the Festival Guitarra de Paracho, The Studios at Mass MoCA, and NAHR in Val Taleggio, Italy, to name a few. In 2024-5 she participated in the NYSS DUMBO Artist Residency, curating an exhibit of multisensory languages and developing a solo exhibit, Song in the Bone, of drawings reflecting on sound and faulty translation. She teaches at Ohio University and volunteers for the NYC Plover Project.
CURATOR BIO
Yasmeen Abdallah (she/her/they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist, working across intersections of sculpture, textiles, painting, collage and social engagement. Drawing from the personal and the political through elements of memory, trauma, resilience, and persistence, this work takes shape in various capacities from minimal gestures to maximal installations. Yasmeen uses a variety of materials and processes to illustrate the connections between our bodies, allegories, contemporary culture and diaspora. This work is inspired by histories, social movements, space, place and personhood. Yasmeen earned Bachelor’s degrees from University of Massachusetts in Anthropology (emphasis in Historical & Collaborative Archaeology, which included field schools with New England indigenous tribal communities); and another in Studio Art with honors, including a Minor in Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Yasmeen also holds an MFA in Fine Arts with distinction from Pratt Institute. Her work as an artist, curator, writer, and educator has included roles as a visiting lecturer, grant recipient and resident at numerous institutions. Fusing together years of decolonial practice, grassroots organizing and creative reuse, Yasmeen has cultivated regenerative discussion, support for emerging artists, and fostered foundational thinking for place-making. Through this work, Yasmeen believes solid communities are sustained and can thrive through cultures of care, collectivity, and resourcefulness as they navigate shifting discourse, movements and landscapes.
Field of Play is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) contemporary art gallery in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Founded in 2022 by Matty Logsdon and run by a dedicated team of artists and curators, the gallery is fueled by a shared belief in the power of art to spark change and inspire meaningful dialogue. FoP presents artist-driven exhibitions and programming that expand visibility for emerging and underrepresented artists, connect diverse ideas, and foster a collaborative community.
Field of Play is located at 56 2nd Ave, Suite 21, Brooklyn, NY 11215
For more information about Grit of Hearth Beyond the Brambles, including appointments, sales, and press inquiries, please contact Field of Play Gallery at fieldofplaybk@gmail.com.
Gallery hours are Saturdays and Sundays from 1-6 pm, or by appointment.