Chela Mitchell Gallery delighted to present Celestial Bodies, the second solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist and sculptor Maya Beverly.

“The driving force behind this exhibition came from the desire to provide these figures or 'bodies' with an environment to create and exist and to terraform a world that is conducive to their desires.” -Maya Beverly

On view until March 23, 2024, the show orbits around a question central to Beverly’s philosophical approach to form: May we regard and relate to the sculptures gathered here not only as functional objects and aesthetic offerings, but also as vessels imbued with spiritual force, energetic autonomy, and thus capable of facilitating ritual? 

Of particular interest here is the conjuring of a cosmogonical birth ceremony and, by way of Celestial Bodies, Beverly is creating a new cosmos. As stated by the artist herself: “If everything in the universe has a beginning and end, then stars too must cease to exist… With time, new celestial bodies (including stars and planets) will emerge from the ashes.”

Here, she imagines an emergence wherein rupture promises regeneration. Here, the scale of time is synonymous not with incessant production, but with a swelling scope of intimacy. Here, and heart hovers not beyond the frame of knowledge. Here, as June Jordan evoked, “[our] heart[s] [are] not peripheral to [us].” Listen under for a rippling glint in the moonwater’s eye, stars insisting upon themselves, the primordial prayer of planet rhythm and find Beverly’s hands caressing, waiting, willing forth a universe’s edge of becoming.

Words by: Camille G Bacon

email hello@chelamitchellgallery.com for inquiries.