Things Themselves Have Tears
Curated by Shelley Holcomb
November 7 - December 12, 2025
Opening Reception November 7, 6:00 - 9:00pm
Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles
Featured Artists
Daniel Adolfo, Lauren Ferajang, Salomon Huerta, Samala Meza, Christine Olowonira and Pauline Shaw
Press Release
Things Themselves Have Tears brings together works created during and in the aftermath of war, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and textiles, all gestures arising from societal fracture. Each was made not outside of conflict, but from within it, translating the weight of history into material form. Daniel Adolfo’s abstractions, shaped by the dislocation between Venezuela and Mexico, render emotional landscapes where memory and displacement converge. Salomón Huerta’s contemplative surfaces transform the ordinary into charged terrain, where stillness becomes both refuge and resistance. In Samala Meza’s paintings, fragmented forms dissolve into color and light, reimagining modernist abstraction through the complexity of the feminine experience. Christine Olowonira reconfigures the ant—a humble, unseen laborer—into a luminous metaphor for feminine strength, using fine metals and gemstones to convey endurance as a form of grace. Pauline Shaw’s large-scale felted textiles weave ancestral patterns and scientific imagery into porous landscapes of remembrance, while Lauren Fejarang’s sculptural compositions, made from resin, concrete, and found materials, evoke the body’s architecture and the persistence of natural forms.
In war, everything becomes precarious: language, memory, time, the body. And yet, the artist reaches for a line, a shape, a surface. It is not always clear why. Together, these artists assert that to create in the face of destruction is to affirm life itself. Their works are bound by the shared impulse to translate what cannot be spoken. Their marks insist on presence, on feeling, on continuity. To make beauty in wartime is not to deny horror; it is to carry it differently. It is to make visible the ache of what is gone and the perseverance of what remains.
Things Themselves Have Tears invites viewers to sit with this tension: to make art in wartime is not always an act of hope. Sometimes it is ritual. Sometimes it is refusal. Sometimes it is simply a way to live another day. The psyche craves evidence that not all is lost. Beauty reminds us of our humanity.
Artists
Daniel Adolfo
(b. 1990, Caracas, Venezuela) creates work that explores emotional resonance,
shaped by his upbringing in Venezuela and life in Mexico. His paintings and
sculptures are guided by intuition and introspection, translating memories,
dreams, and emotions into abstract and figurative forms. Daniel emphasizes both
his own inner experiences and the viewer’s interpretations, encouraging
personal connection rather than fixed meaning. He graduated in Visual
Communication from Prodiseño (2012) with a focus on the psychology of
aesthetics and later trained in ceramic production at Taller de Fuego (2016).
He lives and works in Mexico City.Lauren Fejarang is a Los Angeles–based sculptor and artist working with resin, concrete, and found natural materials. Through abstract structural forms, she explores memory, movement, and the corporeal in everyday objects and nature. She holds an MFA from Art Center College of Design and a BA from the University of Washington. Her work has been shown at Helena Anrather (NY), Tyler Park Presents (LA), Seasons LA, Hesse Flatow (NY), The Coningsby Gallery (London), and Coherent (Brussels).
Salomón Huerta (b. 1965, Tijuana, Mexico) received a BFA from Art Center College of Design and an MFA from UCLA. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Harper’s (New York and East Hampton), Louise Alexander Gallery (Porto Cervo), Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (Mexico City), and Christopher Grimes Gallery (Santa Monica), among others. Huerta has participated in major group shows including the Whitney Biennial (2000), LACMA (2017), and MOCA San Diego. His work is held in the collections of MOCA Los Angeles, MOCA San Diego, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Samala Meza (b. 1996, Santa Rosa, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Meza merges geometric abstraction with an emotional focus on the female form, drawing influence from Herbert Bayer and Eroberto Carboni. Her minimal compositions evoke advertising’s seductive language while critically engaging the legacy of Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko, exploring the complexity and fragmentation of female experience.
Christine Olowonira is a first-generation Nigerian American artist, designer, and founder of Cocoerow Fine Jewelry, a sculptural maison where jewelry becomes art and legacy. Rooted in her Yoruba heritage, her work explores form, emotion, and symbolism, revealing how gold and stone carry stories. Before founding Cocoerow, she worked with Valentino, Celine, and Oscar de la Renta, shaping her refined design language. Through her independent study in gem sourcing and responsible goldsmithing, she redefines adornment as a declaration of strength, ancestry, and becoming.
Pauline Shaw (b. 1988, Kirkland, USA) creates sculpturally rooted works informed by craft, personal histories, cultural inheritance, science, and mysticism. Known for her large-scale felts and installations, she weaves imagery from MRI scans, ancestral textiles, cartography, and ornate motifs into fluid, fragmentary narratives. Shaw has exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Shed, New York; Frost Museum, Miami; and Naranjo 141, CDMX. Her work is held in public and private collections including the MFA Boston and JP Morgan Chase Collection.
Curator
Shelley Holcomb is an artist, curator, writer, and cultural leader in Los Angeles. Originally from Mississippi, she earned a BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her art has been exhibited at institutions including the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, NC, MOCA Los Angeles, CA, the Jepson Center in Savannah, GA, Attleboro Arts Museum, MA, University of Madras, Chennai, India, and Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA.Holcomb’s work spans curation, storytelling, and advocacy, making art more accessible while fostering dialogue and community. As CEO and Co-Founder of Curate LA, she built the city’s most comprehensive art discovery platform, amplifying the artists and creatives shaping L.A.’s global cultural influence. By leveraging digital platforms and traditional media, she continues to push boundaries in how art is presented, discussed, and appreciated.