Opening Reception: Thursday, April 23rd, 6-8PM

Clara Nartey: Vessel—curated by nico w. okoro from the 2026 Open Call—marks the launch of Orchid Gallery’s third exhibition season. This solo show features a diverse collection of artworks by Ghanaian-born textile artist Clara Nartey made over the past decade. Spanning sculpture, portraiture, and still lifes, Nartey’s works weave thread, fabric, copper, and other materials into objects that both carry and hold human stories and relationships—vessels that protect the interior while navigating the exterior. 

On view are five sculptures from Nartey’s new series Skin Over Air, which explores skin as both a protective barrier and the porous membrane through which all manner of bodies interact. These “airy sculptures" take amorphous shapes, speaking to the diversity of the contents they might carry. In discussing the conceptual forces driving the creation of these works, Nartey states, “I think on the surface it’s easy to see the influences of the different spaces a person has moved through. But on the inside the emotions, decisions, and choices one makes are not visible. In this way, when I create these intertwined woven sculptures I’m thinking about how the surface, outer skin, and the walls may easily be interpreted. But the inside is air, colorless, and invisible.” 

Alternating between opacity and translucency, hardness and softness, Nartey’s subversive weavings both reveal and conceal, prompting viewers to reconcile the beauty of these objects with their perceived dysfunctionality. Where many might see holes or cracks, Nartey sees an opportunity to, “mend the broken spaces and weave together new realities from disparate parts.” For Nartey, these works are both figurative and abstract, conjuring human forms while also attempting to visualize the fluid convergence of multiple identities within a melting pot.

She states, “Often when we talk about migration, and the movement of people, we talk about the impact on a place—for example describing a place as a melting pot. How about the people (immigrants) who bring their cultures to make these melting pots, what do they give up and what do they gain in the process of becoming, how do their identities change? I think of melting pots versus salad bowls when thinking about people and migration. Which one is better—melting pots where assimilation is expected or salad bowls where multiculturalism is encouraged? Erasure of cultures versus embracing of cultures?” The works’ rich greens carry forth the salad bowl analogy, whereas the fiery oranges reference her melting pot analogy. 

Nartey’s intricate textile portraits stitch together American quilting traditions and the features and symbols of Ghanaian storytelling. On view are three portraits from her A Good Mother series which considers the social forces at play in characterizing motherhood, and the invisible labor that accompanies pregnancy where mothers serve as vessels for human life. These works were produced in response to a famous West African song, “Sweet Mother,” by Prince Nico Mbarga, where the artist expresses gratitude for his mothering suffering on his behalf, prompting Nartey to question why we often glorify suffering over love? In Vessel, Nartey experiments with visibility to boldly reconcile many invisible tensions between self and other, here and there, and perception and reality.

— nico w. okoro, Founding Partner & Curator-at-Large, Orchid Gallery | Founding CEO, The Building Fund