On View: December 6, 2019 – January 4, 2020

Opening Reception: Friday, December 6, 6-8pm

Planthouse is pleased to present I Lift My Lamp, featuring work by Željka Blakšić, Mildred Beltré, Sarah Jorgensen, and Rachel Ostrow. The exhibition is on view December 6, 2019 through January 4, 2020 with an opening reception on Friday, December 6 from 6-8pm.

The artists in I Lift My Lamp provide light. Whether it’s by highlighting histories that are often passed over, re-contextualizing language, referencing memory, or directly depicting energy and light; the work in this exhibition is a source of illumination.

In addition, a selection of goods by E For Effort, Julia Elsas, Beka Goedde, and Victory Garden will be included in the show.

I Lift My Lamp 

To view the checklist for I Lift My Lamp, click here.

Željka Blakšić AKA Gita Blak was born in Zagreb, Croatia (ex-Yugoslavia) and in 1983, moved to New York City in 2007. She creates performances, 16mm films, videos, prints, and public interventions. In 2010 she received her Master of Fine Arts with Distinction from the School of Visual Arts, in the Photography, Video and Related Media Department. 

Blakšić has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. Her recent performances and exhibitions were presented at Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf (Germany), Framer Framed (Amsterdam), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Herzliya Museum (Herzliya), Gallery Augusta (Helsinki), Los Sures Museum (New York), Recess (New York), AIR Gallery (New York), Offenbachplatz (Cologne), BRIC Contemporary Art Gallery (New York) and many others.

Sarah Katherine Jorgensen, watercolorist and art historian, graduated from the University of California At Berkeley. She currently paints images relating to memory and nostalgia among other things. Her work has been shown in a range of spaces, from institutions such as Montgomery College to the Artist in Residence and White Box galleries. She lives and works in Washington D.C.

Rachel Ostrow (b. 1977) is a Brooklyn-based painter and printmaker. She earned a B.A. in fine arts from Wesleyan University, a post-baccalaureate degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and an M.F.A in painting from Hunter College. She has had solo exhibitions at 42 Social Club (Lyme, CT), Sunday Takeout (Brooklyn, NY), The Kenan Center (Lockport, NY), John Davis Gallery, (Hudson, NY), Saffron (Brooklyn, NY), Todojunto Gallery (Barcelona, Spain), and The Plant (Buffalo, NY). She has participated in group exhibitions in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Montreal, Dublin, Joshua Tree, CA and Great Barrington, MA.

The Goods 

To view The Goods checklist, click here.

E for Effort is a collaborative design project between Brooklyn-based artists Beka Goedde and Rachel Ostrow. Inspired by Anni Albers and Bauhaus design, puns, paper, and packing materials, E for Effort’s products transform the everyday into wearable fashion. Looseleaf was featured in Destination: NYC at the MoMA Design Store (NYC and Tokyo), 2013. 

Julia Elsas was born in Birmingham, Alabama and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her visual art encompasses printmaking, collage, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, paper making, installation, and performance. Julia’s line of functional ceramic goods, formerly marketed as RE/PRESS Editions, was established in 2016. 

Beka Goedde is a sculptor and printmaker living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Goedde’s work considers how we perceive change, length, and the body in space. Goedde has exhibited work at venues around the world, including at American Academy of Arts and Letters (NYC), Galerie Rene Blouin (Montreal, Canada), Soloway (Brooklyn, NY), Inside Out Art Museum (Beijing, China), Deborah Berke Partners (NYC), and Helen Day Art Center (Stowe, VT).

Goedde received her MFA in Sculpture from Bard College, and received a BA in Behavioral Neuroscience and Philosophy from Barnard College. Geode is currently on the faculty of the Studio Arts department at Bard College.

Victory Garden Collective (Louise Eastman, Jess Frost, Tara Geer, Katie Michel, Wendy Small, and Janis Stemmermann) was started in late 2016, when this group of women artists united to create a series of striking, witty, and engaging works in the spirit of the World War II tradition of the “victory garden.” Initially planted to support the home front food supply, these public-park and backyard gardens came to be seen as beautiful elements of communities under pressure, “morale-boosting symbols of solidarity.”