July 25 – August 29, 2026
Holding Space to Bloom
Galerie Myrtis
Online Viewing:
https://galeriemyrtis.net/holding-space-to-bloom-virtual-exhibition/
Galerie Myrtis is proud to announce Holding Space to Bloom, a virtual exhibition bringing together the work of Morel Doucet, Monica Ikegwu, and Ya La’ford, in an exploration of personal, communal, and ecological spaces that nurture belonging, resilience, and collective flourishing. Co-curated by Gallery Directors Noel Bedolla and Ky Vassor, this exhibit examines how care, memory, identity, and the environment shape conditions for growth.
At its core, Holding Space to Bloom considers what it means to cultivate environments where individuals, communities, and ecosystems can thrive. Blooming is both a process and a celebration that recognizes the beauty, strength, and possibility that emerge when care is sustained over time. The works themselves extend this idea beyond the gallery as they become part of homes, collections, and institutions; places where they continue to inspire reflection, connection, and dialogue in everyday life.
Through assemblage, Morel Doucet asserts that the land is a vessel of memory and renewal, serving as a repository for the stories of its stewards. Monica Ikegwu explores the influence of environment on the formation of identity. These intimate hyperrealistic portraits celebrate the richness of everyday Black life, transforming presence into affirmations of cultural continuity and belonging. Ya La’ford invites audiences to engage in a reflective examination of spatial formation and the trajectory of humanity. Through abstraction La’ford navigates the intersections of land, heritage, and global histories. Collectively, featured artists underscore the notion that flourishing emerges through relationships, creativity, and care.
Holding Space to Bloom invites viewers to consider not only the spaces we inhabit, but also the role art plays within them. Works featured serve as archives for memory, conversation, and belonging. They remind us that art does more than reflect our lives; it helps shape the environments where we gather, remember, and ultimately bloom.
Holding Space to Bloom runs virtually July 25 – August 29, 2026. The exhibition can be accessed through the homepage of our website, www.galeriemyrtis.net, starting on July 25th. Please be advised that the gallery is closed for our annual summer recess until August 18th. Clients interested in viewing select works from the exhibition are encouraged to schedule an appointment.
Printmaking, at its core, is an act of revelation. It is the transfer of mark to surface, the emergence of image through pressure, repetition, and time. Across this exhibition, artists employ a range of techniques—relief, lithography, screen printing, monotype, and hybrid processes—to emphasize the physicality of making as a metaphor for visibility itself. Layers are built, obscured, and reconfigured; textures hold traces of what came before; and surfaces become sites where presence and absence coexist.
Together, the eleven artists in this exhibition invite viewers to move beyond surface readings and into deeper engagement. They ask us to consider not only what is visible, but how we see, who is granted recognition, and what remains overlooked. Through the enduring and tactile language of printmaking, Beyond the Surface becomes both a space of reflection and a call to awareness, challenging us to reconsider our role as observers and participants in the ongoing act of making meaning visible.” – Delita Martin
