04/10/2026
The Blue House Gallery is excited to present “Walking in Circles” by Zachary Collopy.
Opening Saturday April 25th 6-9pm at The Blue House Gallery!
From the Artist:
Walking in Circles is an exhibition of Dayton-based Zachary Collopy’s recent work in ceramics and sculpture. The exhibition pairs objects and an ephemeral natural installation, both inspired by processes and forms found in mosaics and quilts, mediums realized through joining of discrete parts into interdependent wholes. Across these works, repetition is used as both a method and metaphor to visualize the experience of returning to a particular landscape again and again. Parallels are drawn between forms created through patient accumulation and the way repeated visits to the natural world gradually reveal the vibrant tapestry of creatures, phenomena and cycles animating the more than human world.
At its core Walking in Circles considers how perception is deepened through sustained encounters with nature. Too often our attention and senses are captured by the tyrannical rapid-smooth-sterile-sameness of daily life. By giving a natural place sustained time and attention, the transformative power of repetition is revealed. Each visit to the same location allows for another fragment of the more than human world to enter our awareness: the conditions that cause birds to sing, allow ice to cover a river or awaken fungi in a fallen log become perceivable. Through patience and dedication, a world built on collaboration, interdependence and reciprocity comes into view.
The processes and form of the work mirror this experience. Like the mosaics, quilts and ecosystems that inspire them these works are created through the careful joining of many individual pieces. Discrete elements lean on, support and complete each other. The works describe both the act of entangling oneself in a landscape and the condition of the natural world itself, an interdependent enmeshment in which life is wholly dependent on connection. When we “walk in circles,” we do not simply revisit a place. We weave ourselves more fully into this living tapestry.
