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ETERNALISM / FANTASMAS
Pasquale Verdicchio and Irén Tété October 25 to November 15, 2025 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 8th 5-7pm |
Gallery Hours:
Thursdays and Fridays 2-5pm (NO gallery hours on November 6 & 7) |
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Pasquale Verdicchio
Acknowledgement of the role and value of death as a an important part of a cyclical and natural continuum is common in many cultural traditions around the world. The photographs in this exhibition are from two different series yet find confluence in their iconography, cultural practices, and as acts of resistance. Most are from the Day of the Dead celebrations in Oaxaca city and Teotitlan, a Zapotec governed town in the Oaxaca region; the others are from two catacombs from my native city of Naples, Italy. |
"Born in the lively visual environment that is Naples, Italy, photography, film, and images of all types left a lasting impression. Sneaking into movie theatres at an early age, films that ranged from neorealist works to the likes of Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, The Conformist, and Blow Up, blockbuster productions like Ben Hur, to Neapolitan productions by the actor Totò, provided a great array of wide-ranging styles and approaches to image creation. My first camera was a plastic Diana with which I recorded daily home life. With time, practice, and slightly more sophisticated equipment, I began to attempt to concentrate on organizing more coherent projects around specific topics that dealt with social and cultural issues. After a series of exhibitions and publications in the 1980s, I returned to photography more fully after retiring from teaching at UC San Diego. Since then, I have published some zines via Blurb: TRANSUMANZA: Abruzzo Sheep Drive (2011), shot on an iphone after my cameras were stolen, FANTASMAS: Day of the Dead (2025), WHAT WE SEE OF ONE ANOTHER (2025). In addition, a photo essay portion of a long term project on the California deserts, “The other thing is Nothing: California’s Salton Sea,” was published in TELLUS: Ecologia, Antropocene, Sostenibilità, Humanities (01/24)."
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Irén Tété
"Born in Bulgaria during the fall of communism, I carry the dissonance of collapsed systems, ancestral beliefs, unfinished houses, and fractured time. My work draws from proto-Bulgarian pagan cosmology, the unbuilt cinderblock homes of my childhood, and rituals connecting us to lineage and place. These experiences—my mother’s demolished home and my Turkish Bulgarian father’s forced renaming—shape my exploration of architecture, memory, and cultural identity through elemental materials and gesture. Clay, language, and form become tools to reclaim and reimagine my fragmented past while envisioning potential futures. My installations resist linear time, existing instead in liminal spaces, inviting reflection on what it means to remember, to connect, and ultimately, to let go." |
Irén Tété (Sofia, Bulgaria / San Diego, CA) is a sculptor whose practice centers ceramic, architecture, and language. Her work merges industrial-infrastructural and human-organic vocabularies, questioning boundaries of belief, structure, language, belonging. Recent solo exhibitions include Sarasota Art Center (FL), Union University (TN), Galleri Urbane (Dallas, TX), and Gallery 371 (Calgary). Her sculptures have been exhibited internationally, including triennials in Poland, biennials in Italy and Latvia, and shows at Kouri + Corrao (Santa Fe), Dallas Art Fair, and Untitled Art Miami Beach. Tété has participated in residencies at Wassaic Project (NY), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (NE), Hambidge Center (GA), Archie Bray Foundation (MT), and Zentrum für Keramik (Berlin). She is currently Assistant Professor and Program Head of Ceramics at San Diego State University.
