Phoenix: Cloe Galasso’s Rebirth into the Art World

Phoenix: Cloe Galasso's Rebirth into the Art World

"Phoenix" is a solo show presenting Cloe Galasso's most compelling and cohesive body of work to date, fittingly named for a mythical bird known for its strength and ability to regenerate. This solo exhibition honors the consistent course of regeneration within life's inconsistencies, showcasing the artist's remarkable evolution through powerful new paintings and sculptures that speak to universal themes of healing, transformation, and spiritual awakening.

Walking into The Hoax's intimate Soho space, visitors are immediately struck by the intentional dialogue Galasso has created between vulnerability and strength,brokenness and wholeness. Her signature statuesque female forms appear transformed in this body of work. An evolution, the forms appear punctured and dismembered in frank acknowledgment of life's moments that cause us to momentarily flounder. Yet these apparent wounds become profound sites of healing, connected by luminous golden threads that represent the electrical currents of the universe flowing through our corporeal selves.

The exhibition's title reflects Galasso's deeper philosophical approach to artmaking. Just as the mythical phoenix must burn before it can be reborn, Galasso suggests that our personal and creative transformations require us to embrace imperfection and change. This isn't destruction for its own sake, but rather the necessary prelude to regeneration. This theme resonates powerfully in our current cultural moment of upheaval and renewal.

Landscapes and Energy

The front gallery presents Galasso's ethereal landscapes; compositions centered around her signature "Qi" figure but notably devoid of human forms. "The Essence Left" (2024) depicts energy among ancient Roman columns on a familiar yet surreal coastline, while "Two d II" (2025) shows broken columns on desert ground where the presence of electrical current persists. These works establish a visual dialogue about the omnipresent energy waiting to heal our broken bodies.

Galasso's experimentation with new mediums shines in two mirrored hexagons that contrast beautifully with the grandiose landscapes. These light and dark forms seem to represent different aspects of the Qi energy, perhaps the duality inherent in all healing processes, where shadow and illumination must coexist. The geometric precision of these works demonstrates Galasso's versatility and willingness to push beyond her established visual language, adding conceptual depth to her expanding artistic vocabulary.

Figures of Strength and Vulnerability

The posterior gallery reveals the full emotional range of Galasso's vision, creating a powerful counterpoint to the landscapes. Here, the human figure takes center stage in all its complexity. "Warrior I" and "Warrior II" (both 2023) flank the windows like ancient guardians—towering figures in confident postures with whole, unwounded bodies that symbolize the strength found when we embrace and channel universal energy. These pieces serve as aspirational endpoints in the narrative journey Galasso constructs throughout the space.

The positioning of these warrior figures is particularly significant. By placing them near the natural light of the windows, Galasso creates a visual metaphor for enlightenment—these healed beings stand closest to the source of illumination, suggesting that wholeness brings us closer to the divine or universal consciousness she explores throughout her work.

The trio of oval works, "Final Breath," "Tormento," and "Clarity", showcases Galasso's masterful handling of light and atmosphere. "Tormento" particularly captivates with its dramatic contrast between looming storm clouds and the wounded female figure below. "Final Breath" offers beautiful ambiguity: while the title suggests life's end, the composition, with its romantic mountain landscape and willowy trees, suggests instead a moment of surrender to nature's healing power. It is up to the viewer to interpret.

The Journey to Wholeness

Galasso's series of five small 8×10 works, titled from "Persistence" to "Rupture," demonstrates her exceptional use of light and shadow while creating a visual poem about the healing journey. These torso fragments, marked by wounds but connected by golden thread, visualize the first crucial step in healing, a connection to something beyond ourselves. The progression of titles suggests a narrative arc, from the initial determination to persist through difficulty, culminating in the necessary rupture that allows transformation to begin.

The simple dark backgrounds allow the golden thread to luminously trace the path toward wholeness, creating an almost religious iconography around the concept of healing. "Enlightenment," beautifully framed in bronze, and centered in the installation of five, stands as our personal favorite. The bronze frame itself becomes part of the artwork's meaning, its warm metallic tone echoing the golden thread and suggesting the precious nature of spiritual awakening. The interplay between the dark ground, luminous flesh, and radiant thread creates a triptych of shadow, substance, and light that speaks to the full spectrum of human experience.

A Revelation: The Artist Revealed

Perhaps most significant is "The Final Portrait", Galasso's first explicit self-portrait and arguably the exhibition's emotional culmination. Where her previous works feature deliberately headless figures, creating a universality that allows viewers to project their own experiences onto the forms, here we see a face unmistakably like the artist's own. This shift from anonymous to personal marks a brave artistic choice, one that transforms the entire exhibition from observation to confession.

The figure appears in an open, receiving state, holding the Qi energy form with both hands in a gesture that suggests both offering and acceptance. Bathed in warm light with a whole, healed body existing in perfect harmony with the surrounding landscape, this work represents not just artistic achievement but personal revelation. It is as if Galasso has painted her way through her own healing journey, arriving at this moment of integration and peace. The composition suggests that the artist herself has undergone the phoenix transformation she explores throughout the exhibition.

The Artist's Process

Galasso's creative ritual reveals the depth of her commitment to the spiritual dimensions of art-making. Her practice involves lighting candles and incense, followed by stretching exercises before painting, sometimes working in complete silence to harness internal Qi and translate it onto canvas. This meditative approach infuses her work with an authenticity that's immediately recognizable. Her stated intention is beautifully simple yet profound: she wants viewers to find peace, discover boldness in their hearts, and feel light when sitting before her work.

During the opening reception, this intention proved powerfully effective. Watching visitors naturally gravitate toward extended contemplation, confirmed the success of Galasso's vision. One particularly moving moment before the show involved a friend of the artist who was granted a private preview, and who spent nearly twenty minutes in quiet reflection before a single work, seemingly transported by the composition’s meditation on surrender and renewal. This is precisely the kind of encounter Galasso seeks to create: art as a catalyst for inner transformation.

Accessibility and Market Consciousness

Thoughtfully, Galasso offers something for every collector at varying price points. Larger pieces and sculptures are perfect for established collectors who have followed her career, while smaller works provide accessible entry points for those new to her practice. This democratic approach reflects the universal nature of her themes; healing and transformation shouldn't be limited to those with significant collecting budgets.

The installation strategy of presenting multiple small works creates an immersive effect remarkably similar tolarge-scale paintings, a curatorial approach we've observed gaining momentum in contemporary exhibitions. We noted a similar strategy in Anna Weyant's jewelry-themed works at the Gagosian's TEFAF booth this past May, where small-scale intimacy proved more powerful than monumental gesture. The reduced scale draws viewers closer, creating an intimate dialogue between artwork and observer that large paintings sometimes struggle to achieve.

The Exhibition Continues: A Must See Show!

Phoenix" offers a comprehensive glimpse of Galasso's artistic scope and her ability to transform various mediums and scales into genuinely meaningful narratives. Her exploration of healing, energy, and regeneration resonates with profound emotional depth, creating works that invite contemplation and offer solace.

The exhibition continues for three weeks at The Hoax, with special events and evening hours every first and third Thursday of the month, providing opportunities to meet the artist and experience these incredible works firsthand. This is essential viewing for anyone interested in contemporary figurative painting and the transformative power of art.

"Phoenix" runs through July 2, 2025, at The Hoax, 96 Greene Street, Soho, New York City.