Core Art Space Member Exhibitions

Core Members Exhibitions: Şebnem Düzgün, Mary Cay and Claire Stufflebeam

The Core Annex: Ed Kutz

Details:

“Peel Slowly and See” – Şebnem Düzgün

In a culture that values speed and certainty, Şebnem`s ceramic sculptures demand patience. They resist hasty judgments and invite slow, thoughtful observation—encouraging viewers to revisit and uncover meanings that reveal themselves over time.

“Peel Slowly and See” is both a title and a method: the work privileges the process of discovery over immediate recognition. Understanding these sculptures—and, by extension, ourselves—requires careful, sustained attention.

Through imperfection, asymmetry, and layered patterning, Şebnem traces the chaotic work of transformation and the messy beauty of becoming. Imperfection is not a flaw but a record of experience. As layers of material and abstraction unfold, a more essential self emerges—vulnerable, resilient, and continually evolving. Stand close. Look longer. Let these layers reframe the human condition as an ongoing practice of becoming—one that yields its depth only when we peel slowly and see.

“The American Conundrum Series” – Mary Cay

This body of work explores Mary Cay’s perspective on how money functions in American society, how it’s accumulated, spent, and managed by both individuals and the government. Central to this series is her inquiry into the cultural and emotional weight that money holds, particularly reflected in “Affirmations and Meditations on Money”.

With this body of work, she challenged herself formally and conceptually. She limited her palette to four colors — red, black, gold, and white — and restricted her visual language to a set of recurring shapes: numbers, currency symbols, and punctuation marks. This minimal vocabulary emphasizes the ubiquity and symbolic power of money in our lives.

Unlike previous series such as “Hope and Blue Landscape”, which were created on an intimate scale, the “American Conundrum” intentionally expands into larger physical space. This shift mirrors the presence of money in our cultural consciousness and personal lives.

“Almost Adults” – Claire Stufflebeam

Claire Stufflebeam’s work is rooted in personal relationships and the complex emotional terrain of early adulthood. In “Almost Adults”, she explores the transitional phase between adolescence and adulthood — a space marked by joy, uncertainty, and deep internal reflection. Her paintings focus on the “in-between” years: a time when no one feels quite like a kid anymore, but adulthood remains elusive and strangely undefined.

Working on small-scale canvases, Stufflebeam captures the intimacy of fleeting moments — laughter between friends, quiet evenings, the blur of drunken nights. Many of her scenes are romanticized, offering a nostalgic lens through which to view the freedom and connection of youth. But beneath the warmth and humor, her work also examines internal confusion and self-discovery. These paintings reflect not only her shifting relationships with others, but also an evolving and often tangled relationship with herself.

Influenced by her experience attending a party school during the global pandemic, Stufflebeam’s work documents a unique period of disconnection, excess, and emotional searching. Through painting, she navigates the contradictions of growing up — the closeness and the distance, the clarity and the confusion, the longing to hold on and the necessity of letting go.

At its core, “Almost Adults” is an attempt to preserve the people and moments that shaped her, while offering viewers a sense of shared nostalgia — a recognition of their own youth, their own friendships, and the uncertain, beautiful process of becoming.

The Core Annex will feature Ed Kutz. He works from captivating images, sometimes in nature, and sometimes combining nature with man-made objects. He leans on his training with a BFA from CSU in studio arts. Kutz tries to find balance without symmetry and often uses angular elements to create interest and tension. Combining images from different sources creates interesting compositions. As he states: I enjoy using a brighter color palette.

Show Runs: November 14–30, 2025

Opening Reception: Friday, November 14, 5:00 – 9:00 PM

Meditation and quiet walk with the art guided by Kathy Mitchell-Garton: Sunday, November 23, 2025, 11:00 – 12 Noon