Chosen from entries to our GET SERIOUS GO SOLO solo exhibition contest, Rachel Pollack’s sensitive paintings of ritual captured us with their quiet significance and simultaneously sparse and ornate spaces.

Rachel on her work:

“In my work I am seeking out moments when an “I” becomes a “We”—and moments when these affiliations break down. My gouache paintings are inspired by rituals I observe in everyday life: crew members raking the infield dirt at the seventh-inning stretch, children playing parachute games, the inauguration of a new president. By re-imagining the context of these rituals, and their accompanying furniture, uniforms, and equipment, my works consider the tension between the persistent identities of the individuals in these scenes and the groups they are a part of.”

As our GET SERIOUS GO SOLO winner, Pollack also receives a free 1 month studio pass to explore what print can bring to her work.

“The content of this work—focused on the relationships between individuals and groups—would lend itself in an ideal way to the the print medium and its traditions of multiples, repeat patterns, and narrative series,” Rachel says of exploring print.