The Conversion: Rings, Rupture, and the Forest Archive
September 19, 2025 – November 15, 2025
Carrie Secrist Gallery, 1732 W. Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60622
from site: SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce its debut solo presentation with Chicago-based artist Jacqueline Surdell: The Conversion: Rings, Rupture, and the Forest Archive. On view will be a suite of new monumental wall-based fiber landscapes created through knotted textile forms. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with Natura Non Constristatur, an invitational survey featuring 11 artists co-organized with Jacqueline Surdell. In addition, the gallery’s salon space will feature a site specific installation, titled Lumen Reliquary, created by Andee Hess of Osmose Design (Portland, OR) inspired by the concurrent exhibitions. The Conversion: Rings, Rupture, and the Forest Archive is a deeply personal ode to the mystical, visceral and illusory nature of forests. In tracing the psychic and physical imprints of history, memory, and myth within this environment, the forest is presented not as a backdrop, but a contemporaneous reliquary. Influenced by Jungian archetypes, feminist storytelling, and environmental histories, her landscapes suggest the invisible threads that link generations—through blood, myth, trauma, and resilience.