On the Nature of Daylight

Hollis Taggart is pleased to present On the Nature of Daylight, a group exhibition featuring twelve artists who engage daylight—its presence, absence, and the charged space in-between—as both subject and structural force. Curated by independent curator Kristen Becker, the exhibition brings together figurative, natural, and abstract works that challenge the boundaries of form through light, shadow, and silhouette. On the Nature of Daylight features artists LaKela Brown, Joseph Cornell, Julia Jo, Tim Kent, Kambui Olujimi, Sarah Peters, Charles Seliger, Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), Rafael Soriano, Irene Monat Stern, Winnie Truong, and Peter Wickenden, and will be on view at Hollis Taggart’s Chelsea location from April 16 through May 23, 2026. The opening reception will be held on Thursday, April 23, from 6 to 8PM.

The exhibition takes as its premise the generative power of illumination not merely as compositional trope but as the condition within that makes growth, perception, and interior life possible. Negative space becomes a site of introspection; silhouette and overlap speak to an almost invisible dynamism. The artists in the exhibition share an awareness that light is never neutral: it discloses and conceals, defines and dissolves, renders the familiar strange and the unseen suddenly present.

Spanning media from acrylic to resin to cut paper to bronze, the works reflect a range of approaches to light and its absences. Many of the artists exploit luminosity to evoke or evade, deploying darkened settings or dreamlike juxtapositions that destabilize the viewer’s perception and unsettle familiar reference points. Peter Wickenden coaxes fantastical fictional creatures from intricate ink works, conjuring imagined ecologies with the patience of natural illustration, while Charles Seliger calls up an almost microscopic universe of lines and fragments that seems to be slowly, organically growing across the canvas. Others reinforce contours and silhouettes through diorama-like depth: Sarah Peters creates uncanny busts that shift compositional identity with the viewer’s vantage point, the face and hair resolving from another angle into something closer to architecture; and Winnie Truong’s collages suspend flora, fauna, and figure in states of impossible abundance. And some present their subjects in the midst of unfolding growth: Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos) references a now-extinct oyster species through shadowy xerographic imagery that renders ecological loss as a haunted silhouette, while LaKela Brown situates daylight within cycles of food, nourishment, and sustainability, invoking the elemental bond between sun, earth, and sustenance.

“The artists in On the Nature of Daylight each bring an acute sensitivity to the way light structures our experience of the world,” notes curator Kristen Becker. “Whether working with shadow as metaphor or as material, with imagined or observed phenomena, these twelve artists share a commitment to the edges—where form gives way to layered meaning and connection.”

Kristen Becker is the founder of KB Art Strategies, a consultancy established out of a commitment to forging lasting dialogues between artists, galleries, institutions, and corporations. With 25 years of commercial gallery experience — including roles as Director of Museum Engagement Marianne Boesky and Director at Luhring Augustine — and over a decade partnering with museums and curators on institutional exhibitions and programming, she works with artists on strategy, collaborates with galleries on museum cultivation, and provides professional development curricula for Mass MoCA's Assets for Artists, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Association of Art Museum Curators, among others. Her curatorial projects include Annotations & Improvisations (Miles McEnery Gallery, 2021), Cells (Marianne Boesky Gallery, 2017), and No Vacancies (Marianne Boesky Gallery, 2015). Becker holds an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University and a BA in Anthropology from Wake Forest University. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

For more information about On the Nature of Daylight, please contact us at info@hollistaggart.com or +1 212.628.4000.

For press inquiries, please contact us at press@hollistaggart.com or +1 212.628.4000.