Exhibitions
J. ALEX SCHECHTER + SEAN M. STAROWITZ: TERRA MAGIA
Neue Welt / 507 Hagan St. March 1 - 30th
J. Alex Schechter, Sean M. Starowitz
Neue Welt is pleased to present a collaborative exhibition between artists J. Alex Schechter and Sean M. Starowitz. The works in Terra Magia ask: how has the relentless pursuit of technological advancement destabilized our worldview? In what ways as makers can we forge new mythos for uncertain times—a talisman against nihilism? The world has ended before and will end again, in the face of such uncertainty and fear, this exhibition invites us to consider the cyclical nature of collapse, renewal and regeneration.
The work in the exhibition actively explores how the transformation of site-specific materials shapes contemporary mythos. Each object challenges destructive myths by embracing processes of regeneration, guiding us toward reshaping the narratives of our chaotic and uncertain times. By disrupting inherited systems of power, these new mythologies offer alternative frameworks for belonging and new possibilities.
Magic and ritual, myth and story—these are the tools of preservation, imagination, and survival. In reflecting on the history of making and meaning, the exhibition embraces the monstrous and the hybrid, the transformation of the real into the unreal. Through sculpture as image, as object, and as talisman, Starowitz and Schechter explore the fragile myths that conceal our origins of violence and challenge the divine authority of social orders. Ultimately, their works converge toward a poetics of the monstrous: a transmogrification of forms and ideas that resist categorization, urging us to reimagine the world in the wake of its unraveling.
Schechter’s mixed-media sculptures examine the legacies of rare metal mining in Northern Wyoming and Southern Montana. Using materials like downed trees, cast aluminum, and religious iconography, Schechter integrates traditional woodworking, digital fabrication, and found objects to explore the allure and contradictions of American mythology. Reflecting on family history and the legacies of Manifest Destiny and the Wild West, these works grapple with the myths that shape and distort our understanding of history.
Starowitz’s clay relief sculptures trace the evolution of mythological ideas as they are shaped through visual culture, embedded into political rhetoric, and perpetuated by societal feedback loops. Crafted from wild clay sourced from the Delaware River watershed, these reliefs incorporate the material’s inherent history, grounding the narratives in the Earth itself—mutable and protean. Echoing architectural elements of Monastic design, Starowitz’s reliefs interlace religious tableaus, apocalyptic text, and Eastern Kentucky folklore to examine how stories are formed, adapted, and wielded.
Twelve, twelve apostles,
Eleven, eleven, I went to heaven,
Ten, ten, commandments,
Nine bright lights a-shining,
Eight Gabel angels,
Seven stars a-hanging high,
Six, six go acymord,
Five all alone abroard,
Four scorn in Wackford,
Three of them are drivers,
Two of them are little lost babes,
Oh, my dear Savior,
One, one is left alone,
One to be left alone.
– Old Kentucky number song
