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Julya Hajnoczky, “Haliaeetus leucocephalus,” 2019

archival pigment print, 1/25, 36” x 24” (courtesy of the artist)

To November 10, step into the enchanting world of the often overlooked, through large-scale photographs of biological specimens and miniature treasure boxes housing unique flowers. Closer is a joint exhibition by Julya Hajnoczky and Katrina Vera Wong.

Hajnoczky uses a high-resolution scanner to produce richly detailed large scale still life photographs of natural specimens like moss, bones, feathers,and leaves, allowing the viewer an unusually close look at each organic object. The detail in the work reinforces the idea of preciousness, and provides the keen observer with the opportunity to slow down and examine the specimens at close range, mirroring the artist’s slow and meticulous study of ecosystems.

Using sections of pressed or dried plants, Wong makes flowers that bloom in dark places, and she calls them Frankenflora. After losing her father in an unexpected way, she revisited a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge that inspired a different perspective on her art practice. Particularly fascinated with the mutability of orchids, she continues to pursue the creation of a“strange and beautiful flower,” giving its variations binomial names.