Alex Ponca Stock

Press Release

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—

Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present Particle and the Wave: Oracles and Symbols for Living and Dying, a solo show by Alex Ponca Stock.

Particle and the Wave features eight abstract artworks that explore the conjunction of modern technological and scientific knowledge with the ancient knowledge handed down from our ancestors. Using the traditional beaded broadcloth found in Osage regalia, Alex Ponca Stock considers a broad array of modern and historical references, including color field painting, early Christian heresies, ancient mound-builders, and quantum physics. The result of her experimentation with larger-scale work, this exhibition is a mature showcase of Ponca Stock’s ability to visually dissect the currents of 21st century life.

Ponca Stock’s practice combines intensive research with the slow, meditative labor of beading to create objects with a strong sense of internal order. The composition of her soft textile works are often reminiscent of the aesthetic of technology—motherboards, logic gates, 3D renderings—without ever betraying the beauty and integrity of the medium. In her choice of color, Ponca Stock is highly attuned not only to the symbolic and emotional power of color, but its physiological effect.

Alex Ponca Stock (b. 1986) is a painter and beadworker from the Gray Horse District of the Osage Nation and the third generation in her family to graduate from the Kansas City Art Institute. Her work has been exhibited by the Denver Art Museum, the First Americans Museum, and the Osage Nation Museum, among others. The artist currently lives and works in Santa Fe, NM.