New Gilded Pear Gallery exhibits ‘expand boundaries of painting’

Gilded Pear Gallery will present two new summer exhibitions titled “Shaping Perspectives” by Nichole Gronvold Roller and Kimberlee Rocca in the main gallery, and “Sehnsucht” by Julia Kulish, on view in the 2nd floor gallery.

These exhibits will be featured in the Gilded Pear Gallery until Sept. 6, 2025. A public reception will be held from 5-7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1, 2025.

"Shaping Perspectives”

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“Shaping Perspectives” brings together two artists who challenge and expand the boundaries of painting, asking us to reconsider its definition and invites us into a conversation where painting becomes not just a surface, but an evolving spatial experience as sculpture.

What unites both practices is their shared interest in bending our expectations. The works challenge the viewer to see design and structure as essential components of painting’s ongoing evolution. Spatial engagement becomes central to each artist’s practice, though approached in distinct ways.

Roller utilizes an almost Op Art aesthetic, creating illusions of depth that prompt the viewer to spend time within each singular, self-contained visual space. Rocca, on the other hand, allows the work to expand into the physical environment, activating space much like how jewelry adorns the body. The work finds its place within an architectural context, asking the viewer to consider the environment and its physical presence within it.

“Much of my work is created out of an overflow of the thoughts churning in my mind as I stand before the easel with brush in hand. Musical lyrics, prayers, and books that I am reading all find their way into every brushstroke on the canvas,” said Kulish. “Those thoughts are just as much a part of a piece as the paint itself, and therefore, often find their place as titles of my paintings.”

“Sehnsucht,” pronounced zeen- zookt, is a series of paintings born out of spending time in the writings of Kulish’s favorite authors, CS Lewis. Lewis explored the idea of humankind’s spiritual hunger and a shared experience described as “sehnsucht,” a German word used by many poets and writers of the Romantic era to describe a profound, yet fleeting longing for something we can’t explain, but know that it is beyond anything we will find in this world.