Birds and Leaves

Candice Ivy and Caleb Neelon

June 1 – July 27, 2024

Opening Reception:
Saturday, June 1, 3-5pm

Drive-by Projects is pleased to present Birds and Leaves, an exhibition including Candice Ivy’s wood fired porcelain birds and Caleb Neelon’s intricately painted leaves.

Candice Ivy’s statement refers to the writings of the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his concept of The Omega Point . . .“For everything that rises must converge.” Though Ivy’s materials are from the earth (clay and glaze, concrete), her delicate porcelain birds appear to be breaking free from the restraints of their columnar plinths to join this upward convergence. Titled The Wide Golden Blue, Ivy’s works aptly evoke the mystical, the magical and the transcendent.

Caleb Neelon says, “I spend a lot of time staring at leaves both real and imagined.” Naturalist, graffiti artist, painter, and author, Neelon has an uncanny ability to portray life’s conundrums with the facility of a cartoonist. His densely patterned, seasonally colorful leaves, painted on shiny black grounds, seem to float above or perhaps below us leaving the viewer with the urge to join Neelon as he gazes.

Above images:
left: Candice Ivy – ‘A Wide Golden Blue’, 2024, wood fired porcelain, 11.5 x 11.5 x 9.5”
right: Caleb Neelon – ‘Untitled (detail)’, acrylic on panel, 36 x 36″