Curated by Natasha Schlesinger

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” — Twyla Tharp

Summer months traditionally invite travel and exploration, experimentation and letting go of rigid structures.  But the wanderlust that seems to take over like a magic spell doesn’t need to take on a physical form.  Is there such a thing as art wanderlust? Can art serve as a portal into other and unexplored worlds? Can we escape and travel along with artists to see what lies beyond the scope of our physical space?

Let’s Escape the Ordinary invites us to step outside the mundane and the ordinary through the artistic portal into landscapes and spaces of dreams, possibilities and the extraordinary. 

Featured art works  in Let’s Escape the Ordinary range in materials, processes and concepts yet the artists here all follow down a path to create art that in the words of Pablo Picasso “…washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”

Megan Gabrielle Harris, a New York based painter, working at the intersection of memory, escapism, and self-discovery. Her paintings place Black feminine figures at their center, serene and contemplative amid lush, surrealist landscapes.

Exhibition Text

NEW YORK — Anat Ebgi is pleased to present All Things Held Between, Megan Gabrielle Harris’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and debut in New York. The exhibition is on view at 372 Broadway from June 26 through August 7 with a reception on Friday June 26 from 6-8 pm.

Megan Gabrielle Harris’s paintings typically feature women of color depicted as powerful, regal, and divine, often set against rich and vibrant backdrops. In All Things Held Between, Harris expands her focus slightly, allowing the landscape to take a more central role. Many of these scenes are inhabited by the same solitary women who appear throughout her work, depicted at moments of leisure and reflection.

Built up from many thinly applied layers, she bases her compositions on memories of landscapes from her life growing up in Northern California and scenery recalled from travels to alluring places such as South Africa, Hawaii, and Italy. The women, who are dominant subjects of several works, are inspired by an amalgamation of women from her family, sometimes based on personal photographs, or wearing clothes that belonged to her grandmother or mother, adding to the paintings’ sense of reflection and timelessness.

The largest painting in the exhibition features a distant view of a lone tree at the edge of the ocean, framed by gently sloping hills. Titled Shangri-La, it was made during Harris’s three-month residency at the New York-based Mack Art Foundation. This painting marks the first time Harris has worked at such a panoramic, mural-like scale, requiring a more physical approach in which the entire body becomes engaged in the act of painting. Extending far beyond the intimate dimensions of her earlier works, Shangri-La creates an enveloping viewing experience, distilling the visible world into a scene of stillness. The solitary tree on the horizon serves as a subtle focal point, echoing the women in other works, while reinforcing Harris’s theme of introspection.

The same sense of ease and comfort extends to Harris’s figures, rendered in simplified, gestural brushwork and luminous color. Whether gazing into the distance or resting with their eyes closed, they appear deeply surrendered to their surroundings. This imagined world is almost Edenic, as women recline in tender meadows, wander through lush valleys, and inhabit landscapes defined by tranquil sense of regeneration. 

Megan Gabrielle Harris (b. 1990, Sacramento, CA) received a B.A. in Art History from California State University, Sacramento. She has exhibited work with De Buck Gallery, New York, NY; PARISTEXASLA Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Nolan House in Governor’s Island, NY; Out of Africa Gallery (OOA), Sitges, Spain; SHOWstudio Gallery, London, UK; Bonhams, Paris, FR; RBM Latitudes, Johannesburg, ZA; Christie’s, London, UK; and Unit 1 Gallery / Workshop, London, UK. In 2025 Harris completed artist residencies with the Mack Art Foundation in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY and Villa Lena in Turin, IT. Harris divides her time between Brooklyn, NY and Sacramento, CA.

Flowers symbolise a multitude of things; the birth of spring, purity and friendship making up just some of their bountiful offerings. They have also long-provided rich and wondrous inspiration throughout the history of art and fashion with nature’s unparalleled beauty seen in the creations of so many wonderful fashion designers, including Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior Schiaparelli and Rei Kawakubo.

To celebrate the beauty of nature, SHOWstudio proudly announce FLOWERS, a new exhibition reinterpreting the floral form as seen through the eyes of over 70 incredible artists working across a variety of mediums, from the traditional to digital and AI painting.

Showcasing contemporary depictions of flora by some of the world’s leading, cutting-edge fashion illustrators and artists, consider FLOWERS as our way of giving back to mother nature by inviting our ever-expansive network of world-class illustrators to contribute their visions.

Illustrators participating are as follows:

Abbey McCulloch, Alessandra Genualdo Kingsford, Alexandra Grahame, Amelie Hegardt, Anjelica Roselyn, Barbara Mancini, Beth Fraser, Blue Farrier, Carylann Loeppky, Cathrine Raben Davidsen, Cecilia Carlstedt, Clement Louis, Cliff Warner, Crystal W M Chan, Dylan Qin, Eduardo Mata Icaza, Emma Larsson, February James, Frédéric Forest, Glenn Sandoval, Helen Bullock, Henrike Gomber, Ian Hodgson, Jacky Blue, Jacquetta Crook, Jenifer Corker, Jérémie Marié, Jessica Bird, Jessica May Underwood, Jiajia Li, Johanna Stickland, Jowy Maasdamme, Julia Pelzer, Kaoru Takano, Katarina Kuhl, Kukula, Lara Lancaster, Lydia Roberts, Mahboubeh Absalan, Marco Rea, Marina Mika, Martha Zpounou, Megan Gabrielle Harris, Nicasio Torres Melgar, Nicolas Roa, Ozabu, Paola Travers, Petra Lunenburg, Piet Paris, Poppy Waddilove, Rashad Al-Karooni, Ray Caesar, Rob Unett, Robson Stannard, Sabina Sinko, Samuel Harrison, Seniz Jones, Shokoufeh Attari, Stephen Doherty, Steve Kim, Stina Persson, Suzy Platt, Teresa Austin, Tiffani Glenn, Tine Isachsen, Tobie Giddio, Tom Hemingway, Tracey Smith, Uzo Hiramatsu, Velwyn Yossy, Veronica Mortellaro, Victor Tkachenko, Von Wolfe, Zhenya Z.

FLOWERS will open to the public on 7 December and will be open Monday - Friday every week until 29 February, 2024.

PLATFORM in partnership with David Zwirner Gallery