Decay is in the air this season, made manifest in “(Un)Becoming,” a show of works by Ana Koehler and Hannah Cieri at Soapbox Arts in Burlington. Koehler presents collaged, figurative paintings on panel of women in violent but symbiotic-seeming relationships with the garden: one pricked by thorns, another ripping tulips from the ground, a third feeding crows with her own blood, in the style of an old-school saint. The artist complements these with photographic images of plants, hair and body parts pressed directly onto a scanner bed, with accents sewn on in gold thread. The effect is both technological and witchy, the images reveling in the organic and tactile.
That vibe flows through Cieri’s porcelain sculptures as well. Starting from classical thrown vessels in greens and grays, her forms are stretched and gouged, each piece seemingly invaded by shelves of fungus, like a rotting log. Whorls and bubbles interrupt the smooth surfaces, supplanting the human with something less tame. Cieri, who is also a floral designer, has tied the show together with masses of dried plants that undulate through the space. The exhibition balances a whiff of mortal danger with the surprise and brightness of a new pile of leaves, enticing you to leap.
‘(Un)Becoming’ On view through November 14 at Soapbox Arts in Burlington.
This article appears in October 28 • 2026.
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