Beneath the Surface
Alexis Granwell and Greg Dzurita
Curated by Yulia Topchiy
July 19th, 2025 - August 10th, 2025
Beneath the Surface brings together the tactile sculptures and relief work of Philadelphia-based Alexis Granwell and the elemental, geometric compositions of New York-based Greg Dzurita in a meditative dialogue on materiality, perception, and presence. United by a shared desire to slow down and reconnect with the earth, the body, and emotion, both artists employ natural materials and sensory-driven processes to excavate meaning from texture, form, and color. Their work offers a grounding, embodied counterpoint to the disembodied pace of contemporary life.
Granwell’s hybrid forms blur the line between painting and sculpture, body and surface. Constructed from hand-dyed and painted paper pulp, her pieces appear both sturdy and fragile, wrinkled, pressed, and marked by gesture. Often perched on precarious pedestals such as cinder blocks or narrow wooden supports, Granwell’s sculptures heighten a sense of vulnerability and interiority, inviting viewers to pause and reflect. Cratered voids, swirling textures, and soft, bruised hues evoke flesh, memory, and geological time. Old Wind, a standout wall relief, captures the ephemeral force of nature frozen in motion; its undulating surface and subtle tonal shifts suggest time’s passage and the quiet persistence of elemental forces.
Dzurita’s work breathes with a meditative intensity, emerging from a practice rooted in slowness, ritual, and material experimentation. He creates pigments by hand, sourcing botanical and mineral materials that embed each work with a sense of place and process. These natural pigments are applied in careful layers that evoke both permanence and impermanence, giving his geometric compositions a subtle sense of motion and breath. Drawing on architecture, spiritual iconography, and the worn surfaces of urban and natural landscapes, Dzurita constructs spaces that feel both ancient and contemporary. In The Source, light radiates from within, transforming the object into a contemplative beacon. Other works, such as I Think I Let Go and The Only Echo, suggest portals and shadowed interiors, thresholds that invite surrender, memory, and reflection.
Together, Granwell and Dzurita construct a visual language rooted in stillness, material presence, and poetic resonance. Beneath the Surface refers not only to physical layering but also to the emotional and psychological depth the works evoke: reflection, vulnerability, and sensation. A materially grounded pairing, the exhibition explores intimacy, tactility, and transformation through natural processes and sculptural form, offering a contemplative response to the digital world and inviting viewers to engage with slowness, sensation, and emotional presence.
ARTIST BIOS
Alexis Granwell is a Philadelphia-based artist exploring the psychological and bodily dimensions of built and natural environments through hand-dyed paper pulp. Her sculptures investigate touch, intimacy, and transformation. Granwell has exhibited at the American University Museum (Washington, DC), Weatherspoon Art Museum (NC), Schau Fenster (Berlin), Zürcher Gallery (New York), and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum. In 2024, she completed a major public commission for Penn Medicine’s Clifton Center, curated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. A recipient of the Independence Foundation Fine Arts Fellowship, she has held residencies at Dieu Donné, I-Park, Ragdale, and Jentel. Her work has been featured in Hyperallergic, Sculpture Magazine, The Washington Post, and more. Granwell holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches drawing. She was a founding member of Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia.
Greg Dzurita is a New York City-based artist working in geometric abstraction. His practice synthesizes architecture, geometry, and the natural world through the use of handmade pigments and minimal form. Dzurita earned a BA in Advertising from Pennsylvania State University before moving to New York, where his work began to engage deeply with the textures of urban life and natural materials. He has exhibited in New York (Superfine, Soho House), Denver, and Buenos Aires, and has participated in residencies with Willow House (Terlingua, Texas) and Proyecto ’ace (Argentina). In 2024–25, he is part of the Canopy Program with NYC Crit Club, a year-long mentorship initiative for emerging artists.
