Chalk Horse is thrilled to announce A Solid Substance, an exhibition by Kat Shapiro Wood on view at the gallery from July 20th to August 12th, 2023. The opening reception will take place at the gallery on July 20th from 6-8 pm. A Solid Substance further forces that shape us. in the exhibition tease out the materiality of substance, including beeswax, pigment, aged book covers, brass and copper, plaster, and ceramic forms. The materials, all with their own inherent alchemical processes, come together to inspire a quiet reverence, stirring the poetic links between the tangible, material realm and one that is moved by subtler forces, to create a more spiritual and visceral experience. Encaustic, the primary medium in the exhibition, is physically stretched in its abilities as a medium, and while allowing marks of the blacks, ivory and copper greens, mirrored in the clay and glazes. Its application in A Solid Substance, melding with and against various substrates such as silk organza stretched over board, alongside ceramic, is trialled in a process likened to smelting metal A Solid Substance seeks to embody what it is to be human and go to the limits of our longing to become fully alive. This longing, pressurised sublimations to arrive at their most exalted and solid yet tender forms.