Second Street Gallery is pleased to present Paper Room,  a mixed-media exhibition transforming the Dové Gallery into an interactive space enveloped in paper and filled with paper-covered and paper-sculpted objects. Paper Room, conceived by artist Jess Walters in collaboration with Stephen Haske and Sarah Lawson, will be held in the Dové Gallery from June 7 to July 19, 2024. The artists will be present on First Friday, June 7 from 5:30-7:30PM, to meet and chat with visitors.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the UVA Center for Health Humanities and Ethics, UVA Health Office of Diversity and Community Engagement, and Virginia Humanities.

Paper Room is a living example of how art creates space to foster connection. As an immersive experience created by three artists who met serendipitously through programs with Second Street Gallery and New City Arts Initiative, Paper Room demonstrates how openness to collaboration can cultivate unexpected opportunities for communal reverence.

In a literal sense, the collaged living room scene invites visitors to physically interact with the ways in which paper, words, and images have shaped our perceptions of the world and our roles within it.

Inspired by conclusions from Peter Sterling’s book, What is Health? Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design, Jess Walters (they/them) approached Paper Room as a challenge to visually articulate a declaration of war against industry, and a desire for life beyond the despair it generates internally, interpersonally, and communally. Their initial vision of a wallpaper design using images of James Watt’s steam engine, wild tansy flowers, and a wake of vultures to symbolize these themes prompted Jess to seek the skills of Stephen Haske (he/him), a multi-disciplinary artist whose compelling body of illustrative work explores the intricate relationships between architecture, mechanical structures, and nature.