Sophia Belkin

Greenpoint Terminal Gallery is proud to present the first NYC solo exhibition of New Orleans based artist Sophia Belkin.

Belkin’s work ignites an ethereal journey of an imagined and abstracted landscape through the eyes of the Bog Copper Butterfly. The Bog Copper is a small, orange-brown butterfly that inhabits cranberry bogs in the northeastern United States, Canada, and a small area in the Monongahela National Forest of West Virginia, where Belkin developed the majority of this series. In the quest for minerals not found in flower nectar, the Bog Copper seeks other nutrient sources like rotting plant matter, mud, or wet soil. This phenomenon, known as puddling, is marked by dozens of butterflies congregating in one spot, creating a single vibrant, moving mass. The cluster often appears to take on a life of its own—fluttering, hovering, drinking, absorbing matter invisible to the naked eye.

The pollinator’s search for nutrients is echoed in the wandering line-work of Belkin’s central painting, while other pieces in the show provide smaller windows into the epic narrative. Appearing simultaneously topographic and microscopic, this journey includes detours and pauses within a larger terrain. Belkin's use of dye painting, embroidery, and textile collage reference these natural processes and complex moments of transformation. An allegory of our own experience and role within landscapes, the Bog Copper's travels are fragmented and nonlinear, yet critical in the success of a larger ecosystem.

Sophia Belkin (b. 1990 Moscow, Russia) currently lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana. She earned her BFA in drawing and printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2012. She has participated in residency programs in Vermont, Norway, Russia, and the Narva Art Residency in Estonia. Recent shows include Ground Swell at Resort in Baltimore, Á Condition at Calaboose in Montreal, and Svetspalonos, an immersive multimedia exhibition installed on Juzna Trieda in Kosice, Slovakia. Her current practice utilizes dye painting, embroidery, textile collage, and installation.