Drama Gallery
260 Moore Street #403, Brooklyn, NY 11206
June 27 – July 11, 2025
Greek mythology tells us that Orpheus, master of song, descends into the underworld to retrieve Eurydice from death. Desperate to restore sense to a senseless loss, his song moves Hades and Persephone to grant her return. On the threshold of the upper world, he glances back at Eurydice, lacking blind faith that she follows. His forbidden glance destroys whom he seeks to save, an attempt at control leaving him at a greater loss.
A breakdown in a signifying chain propels new possibilities. With meaning-making under duress, symbolic order cannot be reconstructed without abstraction. Orpheus’s backward glance collapses into immediacy. But music and painting, like magic and mania, map complexity through frameworks to restore coherence. Loss becomes the condition of creation, and creation that of loss.
Orpheum enacts two theories of control. One turns toward the material where representation dissolves, another toward the site where representational systems take hold. In two acts, Orpheum stages a split in subjectification: material faith against symbolic order, embodied desire against operative unconscious. A loss of relation, within and between the two, sets the world in motion.
— Alana Frances Baer
New Work by Eve O’Shea, Clara Wise, and Claire Schlaikjer
Drama Gallery
260 Moore Street #403, Brooklyn, NY 11206
October 12 - November 4, 2023
Curated by Eve O’Shea
Some shaggy forms are more serious than others. A sudden protrusion makes
fine fractures; a residue builds along a column of air. Deal with the consequences
after the fact, upon hesitation. Uniformity is an absorbent surface, soluble
middle ground. The logic is one of deep privacy, except I was there.
A piece of straw soaked in red punch; a failed eclipse on the Spanish moss.
There is a zone of potential. First of all, the slit in the figure reveals all angles
to be right. In the calcified walls of the city, you may abstain altogether
so long as the water has firm grip. There are several events legible
in the murky surface: an elder awash in a fountain
a horizon protracting into a snout. The sun sets behind a cotton mountain
inverted at a critical moment. It makes an adherence, a cold-cut bandage,
a bloating before a luminous panel. Through hard work and focus
the mind can digest an oppressive teal, and God must be thanked for that
kiss his deflated snout. Describe the memory in a circular motion.
A depthless field rises vertically; even the most calcified forms bloat upon regard.
There is a maligning. There are discrete events—three, four, the heads
of foam interior, blue-freeze fluid. The cat made lively by a wide aperture.
The liveliest animal is born of a strong reduction.
-Tara Sharma
Plot Twist
Drama Gallery
260 Moore Street #403, Brooklyn, NY 11206
Februrary 2022
Script (exerpt) by Nick Jorgensen
INT. Scene :D Mr. Fong’s
Eve and I have been texting back and forth for about a week prior to the meet up. On this day; thursday february 10th, we decided to hang out. It was a “meet up” for her “interview” at Mr Fong’s. I consider it hanging out. On my way to Mr. Fong’s, I felt like I was late. I wasn’t.. Once I got to Mr. Fong’s, I looked around and Eve was nowhere to be seen. Turns out she walked one block too far. Like a Chinatown miracle.. I looked down and saw a dog. I thought to myself… “ is this Mr. Fong?” because the bartender was half serving drinks and half playing fetch with this dog, in a semi crowded bar, with a path cleared for this trendy dog and his love for fetch. He was trendier than everyone in the bar. While I was looking at this dog, I realized that I am now in a trendy bar and looking at a dog. I also saw an open table which was a fraction of the miracle. The table looked like it was made for me and Eve. I grabbed the table before the drinks. Next thing I know Eve is sitting down next to me taking off her jacket. We small talked for a bit and after that, she said: “New York is so crazy.” I agreed. We looked around and saw cool looking people. I told her about how I used to be intimidated by French people but now that I live in New York, I'm not so much anymore. She told me she was French and born in France. I asked her if she speaks fluent french. She said yes, and tried to explain how crazy it is to think in different languages. The conversation about France entertained our conversation about art. So I decided to initiate the recording.
me: Yeah i don't know… pretend like its not even recording.
Eve O’Shea: Ok.
me: So…. whats up …. With your painting. I..i really like it…..to me….. It resembles.... elves or something.
Eve O’Shea: Oh… woah! That's cool.. I didn't think of it as like.. characters at all..
me: really?
Eve O’Shea: I mean i guess in the way that i made it like…. Ive been making it for a pretty.. long time..
me: a long time?
Eve O’Shea: Yeah… i've been building up the layers for many months. Not.. not like working on it all the time… but like slowly… but i guess the way that i made it was by putting very very thin layers of paint and choosing a specific palette i guess, and then from there i like to build on whatever i create..
me: so you like to add layers and like take away layers.. Nice.
Eve O’Shea: with uhh with like a rag. And then I.. I guess I use a photo reference. Its like an image of my two friends playing poker.
me: Oh so it is characters.
Eve O’Shea: oh yea yeah.. No like theyre people. But not elves.. BUT it is interesting that you say that because recently when i started getting to the end of it i was like “oh that actually looks.. Kind of like… they do look like distinctive…um CHARACTERS,.” like not necessarily… like they dont look like the people theyre based on really.. But they look like something else.. and that just came as i was making it.… and they..they're like.. CUTE. There’s something about it that's like really adorable… and its like.. not what i expected. but i like that.
me: thats cool :)
Eve O’Shea: Yeah. and thats happened in one of my other paintings like the last one that i was working on like.. the people that it was based on.. like the characters.. They became really cute. But it was noooot what i was excpec… like they look like anime or something.. Like here ill show you.
pulls out the phone, unlocks and then searches. Eve showed me her phone screen and on it was a painting that I thought was beautiful. She showed me her website and I was blown away. I had no idea she made so many, and they were gorgeous. We start diving into her other works. The meet up turns into a hang out. The next topic of conversation was about romantic interests. For some reason I love when Eve talks about love.. We also started talking about books and love, then just books. I think because of books and love, we somehow ended up with psychedelics as the conversation piece, and I told her about my horrific Freudian dmt trip that brought up the memory of my first dream I could ever remember. Eve also told me briefly about some of her acid experiences, but they were so brief.. that as i write this.. i wish to myself, that i pressed record during this. We conclude that the psychedelic experience.. The fact that it exists is crazy. and that new york is crazy too.. and that i HAD A GREAT date with Eve.
Eve O’Shea, Claire and Miles playing poker ,24”x24”, Oil on Canvas, 2022