Life-size paper sculptures and vibrant paintings skillfully play with the idea that we are all vessels carrying ancient history and cultural DNA within us, navigating a modern world increasingly anxious about AI eroding human memory and thinking. In the center of the gallery, eight hollow, handcrafted sculptures represent the outermost sheathing of the body and timeless archetypes— including the mythical horse Pegasus, the ecstatic Saint Teresa, and ancient Greek kouroi. A series of primordial figurines line an above-eye-level shelf to provide the essential animating baseline of human art-making. Paintings on the perimeter walls track spirit bodies running through the streets of Tokyo, Amsterdam and Rome.

“I use basic images and materials—no technology here—to talk about the big things that connect our humanity,” says Palamidessi. “For instance, paper. Paper is light and fragile, yet it lasts; it’s the historical medium for record-keeping, text and storytelling. Everyone has held paper. When I harden the paper into a three-dimensional ‘coat of skin’, not only do patterns emerge, but also the invitation for the lustrous spirit within to exit."

"The paintings catch the spirits to reveal our traveling consciousness, our dreams, our connection to one another. Of course, I have included a mother sculpture, the ultimate ‘pass through’. No matter who we are or where we go in the world, we take our history with us. We are vessels for something beautiful passing through.”