Kiah Celeste
2025
Aluminum Cage, Clematis Virginiana, Corian, Time
44H x 37W x 37D in
Using entirely recycled panels of aluminum fencing refabricated into a cage and Corain scrap to build the planter base, Kiah enforces her first and only rule in the studio; sustainability. ‘The Little Virgin That Could’ embodies the transformation between a structured, manmade society and the decay of order into the natural world, when entropy takes hold. Nature will eventually reclaim and recover despite humanity’s determination to control and subdue it in the name of anthropocentrism, industry and over civilization. Over the course of this exhibition, vines will gradually engulf the manmade structure of its own detainment.
Clematis Virginiana, nicknamed “Virgin’s Bower”, “Love Vine”, “Traveler’s Joy”, “Devil’s hair” and “Old Man’s Beard” (due to the white fluffy flowers it produces) among others, is a perennial vine which grows vigorously and quickly but non-invasively. This aggressive beauty can withstand many conditions and is a friend and home to birds and bees.
Kiah pays homage to her seven years spent in Louisville, finding several affinities between herself and this highly adaptive, aesthetically delicate yet tenacious, fast moving Kentucky Native vine.
When considering the subject of medium, one thinks of material. In this case, Kiah uses the non-tangible “material” of time as a medium because it influences the aesthetics and concept of the piece in tandem with its physical materials (aluminum caging and clematis Virginiana vines) which will change with time.
In ‘The Little Virgin That Could’, the piece isn’t fully realized without the element of growth over time, otherwise it would be stagnant, and crumble into entropy as all manmade materials eventually do. Nature doesn’t erode with time, it grows, changes and transforms but never decays into nothingness. This piece describes Kiah’s faith in nature over industrialization and over-civilization when things seem bleak in the face of climate change and non-sustainable practices. Time will tell as what started as feeble looking baby Virgin bower vines slither around and throughout the bars, slowly engulfing its captor into oblivion.
September 26, 2025 – March 7, 2026
Historically, the four seasons have been explored as a metaphor symbolic of the phases of all forms of life and represented across artistic disciplines including music, literature, fashion, and visual art. This exhibition, which is loosely inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, is a broader exploration of the relationship between nature and contemporary art.
All Four Seasons in Equal Measure brings together six artists, all of whom live and work in Kentucky, whose works highlight their intimate relationship with place and the natural world. Their creative output celebrates the beauty of the environment and demonstrates their concern for its precarities through painting, works on paper, sculpture, video, and installation.
The exhibition continues on the second floor along with an activation that points to the history of this building as a library. A transitory space at the top of the rear stairs has been transformed into a reading room, populated with books recommended by the artists and copies of Walden.
All Four Seasons in Equal Measure was curated by guest curator Monique Long in collaboration with The Carnegie.
Artists: Britany Baker, Kiah Celeste, Shohei Katayama, Gibbs Rounsavall, Rachel Singel, Roy Taylor
Pictured: Shohei Katayama, Britany Baker, Roy Taylor
Pictured: Gibbs Rounsavall, Britany Baker
Pictured: Britany Baker
Pictured: Shohei Katayama, Britany Baker