The loss that shapes the image brings together works by Vanessa Conte, Gabriel Slavitt, and Jesse Howard—three artists who channel deeply personal and cultural narratives through language, bodies, and mark-making.
Vanessa Conte’s No Hard Ground (2020–2022) presents a female protagonist whose contorted poses stretch not only the limits of her body but of the comic book form itself. As Alex Jovanovich notes, these figures “refuse to surrender… muscular, hardheaded beings… trapped in a capricious, misogynistic world not too dissimilar from the one we occupy in real life.”
Gabriel Slavitt’s drawings operate as subconscious excavations. In Calling the Earth To Witness, a hand claws into a figure’s back, leaving a void rather than a wound. Motifs like clown shoes, fly trails, and empty pockets recur—at once absurd and emotional—mapping a restless search for meaning.
Jesse Howard, a self-taught artist, filled his Missouri property with hand-painted signs. WHAT IS A HOME WITH=OUT=LOVE? stands out for its stark simplicity. Howard’s obsessive sign-making persisted through vandalism and fire, becoming a testament to resilience and belief.
