The Seed Contains the Tree – Ivory Gate Gallery,Shanghai,China
Installation view, The Seed Contains the Tree. Madeline Gallucci (left), Scott Wolniak (right)
Rouge XX, 2024. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in
Madeline Gallucci (left), Scott Wolniak (center), Madeline Gallucci (right)
On Western, 2024. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 22 x 30 in.
Soft pull, 2024. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 22 x 30 in.
Madeline Gallucci (left, center), Scott Wolniak (right)
Scott Wolniak (left), Madeline Gallucci (right)
Black box, 2024. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in.
Madeline Gallucci (left), Scott Wolniak (center), Madeline Gallucci (right)
Mirror (SM), 2024. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in.
The Seed Contains the Tree
Ivory Gate Gallery – Shanghai, China
March 22 – May 9, 2025
The Seed Contains the Tree is a two-person exhibition, showcasing the works of Chicago-based artists Madeline Gallucci and Scott Wolniak. These artists are united by their shared devotion to experimental, optically layered painting and their connection extends through a social network of mentorship: Wolniak advised Gallucci during her MFA at the University of Chicago.
In the realm of studio arts pedagogy, conversations and attentiveness are the soil in which potential flourishes. Each studio-visit or casual dialogue about “the work” plants seeds—some sprout immediately while others lie dormant, awaiting the right moment to bloom.
In the botanical world, activated seeds grow both down and up. The downward movement seeks nutrients and provides support, while the upward movement reaches for light and expresses its energetic vibrance in physical space. Trees require time, nourishment, space and light to develop. The same might be said about painting.
This exhibition brings the work of these artists together for the first time and is itself an experiment. Surprising conversations between the works on display will inevitably occur, potentially generating a lush garden of cross-pollination and painterly vibrance.
This marks the first time the artists have exhibited in Asia.