Jody Guralnick (paintings) and the Bankemper Collaboration (ceramic sculptures)

MAY 14-16, 2026

Guralnick’s work is inspired by nature. Her paintings depict winding patterns that lichen forms on rocks, as well as the branching hyphal patterns of fungal growth. The lichen, painted in acrylic in rich and alluring impasto, stands in bas-relief against an oil background evocative of nature’s palette. Guuralnick has had a lifelong fascination with and commitment to nature and scientific studies. The microscopic universes she discovered at her feet (hiking on mountains) became fodder for dissection and categorizing. The ephemeral nature of nature, its cycle of growth, deterioration and rebirth became a metaphor for life and fragility in the artist’s hands.

Each of the Bankempers (Joan Bankemper and Sophie Bankemper Frances ) works on a specific aspect of the ceramic sculptures: Sophie creates the biomorphic forms, more interested in their sculptural shapes and character than in creating a vessel. She hand-builds the sculptural forms intuitively, some of which make reference to the human body, providing her Mother, Joan, with richly varied surfaces on which to work. Joan creates the skin, the color, the handwriting that gives each work its distinction, adorning the surface with hundreds of flowers, birds, circles, a surface that teems with life. There is a contra punto energy between the delicate flower beds, the variegated shapes and sizes of circles, and the rugged green grout suggesting a garden, and the somewhat (intentionally) unrefined asymmetrical shape. Might this family duo be commenting on the state of the world that is no longer refined, in a state of flux, asymmetrical, with a lot of unpleasantness?

Bankemper’s flowers and Guralnick’s lichen converse across mediums. From Bankemper’s farm upstate NY and Guralnick’s neighboroing mountain trails the viewer is invited into the heart of nature.