U P C o mi n g :

‘ c o n n ec t i v e T i s s u e ’

Libby Paloma, Caitlin Rose Sweet, Heather Renee Russ

October 24 - November 14, 2025

Opening Celebration: Friday October 24th from 6-8pm

Low Sensory Masked Preview (all are welcome) from 5-6pm  

Performance throughout the evening by Libby Paloma and special guest performance artist Cookie Paloma

Artist Talk Friday November 14th 7pm

Gallery Hours:  Saturdays & Sundays 12-4

Connective Tissue brings together the work of three queer femme artists, Libby Paloma, Heather Renée Russ and Caitlin Rose Sweet. From a foundation of joy and solidarity, the show confronts erasure of femme labor and the dismissal of femme bodies by institutions, culture and western medicine through mutual care, humor and refusal. These artists craft worlds that hold one another, weaving strength and softness into vital forms of care. Through performance, experimental photography, video and sculpture this exhibition considers mutuality and collective redefinitions of healing. Connective Tissue supports, connects & binds to create a matrix of care and shared femme rage.

Paloma’s soft sculpture and performance piece contains oversized, tactile pies. The work transforms an everyday symbol of empty promise into a sensorial environment where sweetness pledged is actually served.  She uses traditional sewing techniques passed down by the Chicanas in her family. Her practice is rooted in a conceptual framework they call world-softening, grounded in their lived experience with a congenital connective tissue disorder.

Russ’s large-scale experimental photograph Weathering Phenomenon depicts healing botanicals grown by fellow show artist, Caitlin Rose Sweet. Using a scanner converted into a high res camera, the imagery is fragmented and rainbowed to reflect the complexity of queer femme experience, “our lives refracted, disrupted and lived beautifully in ways the ‘machine’ cannot fully parse.” Accompanying the photograph are her playful bioreactors: repurposed glass high heels and dildos that house living algae, that quietly absorb carbon and produce fresh oxygen for viewers to breathe.

Sweet’s ceramic sculpture Sour Puss explores themes of domestic revolt and the affect of exploitation of feminized labor. Sweet’s video work Tending and accompanying vessels explore the intimacy between rural queers and the land they tend. The video was created in collaboration with Andre Azevedo Sweet.  In Sweet’s practice, disability is employed as both constraint and catalyst, shaping material practice while expanding the possibilities of form.

Biographies:

Libby Paloma Libby Paloma (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based, queercrip, Mexican-American artist whose work explores intersectional identity through maximal aesthetics, humor and the radical potential of softness. In 2025, Paloma co-chaired a College Art Association (CAA) panel titled Crip Time: Disabled Spacemaking in the Work of Queercrip Artists and spoke at Tufts University’s symposium How Do You Throw a Brick Through the Window…Paloma has been an artist-in-residence at The Clemente (New York, NY), SPACE (Portland, ME), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and The Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and is currently in residence at Velvet Park (Brooklyn, NY) through 2025. Their work has been exhibited at institutions including El Museo del Barrio (New York, NY), Burlington City Arts (Burlington, VT), SOMArts (San Francisco, CA), SPACE Gallery (Portland, ME), the University of Southern Maine (Gorham, ME), and the Dorsky Museum (New Paltz, NY), where they received the Artist Purchase Award. Upcoming exhibitions include the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, WI) and Human Resources Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), with work currently on view at Tufts University (Boston, MA). Before pursuing an art career, Paloma worked for two decades in education as a counselor, teacher, and Speech-Language Pathologist. They earned their MFA from Parsons School of Design at The New School (New York, NY) in 2023 on a full scholarship.

Heather Renée Russ (she/they) works across experimental photography, installation, and bio-art. Her multidisciplinary practice incorporates queer femme signifiers and organic materials into works that engage with queer ecologies, femme labor and the cumulative effect of stress on queer bodies. Russ has an upcoming solo exhibition at NARS Foundation in NYC and is currently included in Solastalgia at Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach. Russ recently had a solo exhibition at SUNY (State University New York) Old Westbury. Russ has also shown with Field Projects in NYC, SPRING/BREAK Art Show NYC, NADA Miami with Paradice Palase, IMT Gallery in London, SoMos in Berlin, Flux Factory, Underdonk in NYC and Satellite Art Fair in Miami. Russ has completed residencies at NARS Foundation, MASS MoCA, Wassaic Project, ChaShaMa North and Vermont Studio Center. She is a member of the EFA Studio Program where she has her studio in NYC.

Caitlin Rose Sweet (she/they) (b. 1978) is a Hudson Valley based mixed media artist who has been included in exhibitions at Upstate Art Weekend 2024, Spring Break 2023, September Gallery, Allouche Gallery, Leslie Lohman Museum, The Speedwell Project, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Fuller Craft Museum, Stamp Gallery University of Maryland, and Every Woman Biennial NYC. She has taught workshops at Context Collective(Troy, NY), Gasworks (NYC), NYU Performance Studies (NYC), and  Joan Mitchell Foundation (NYC). Her work as been featured in Paper Magazine, Wussy Mag, and Huffington Post. Sweet has a MFA in Applied Craft and Design from PNCA and is Leslie Lohman Museum fellow. She was awarded a Create Council Statewide Community Regrant in 2025.

Accessibility Statement: As artists, we are invested in accessibility and want to share details about the space. The main gallery is wheelchair accessible; however, the bathroom is not currently wheelchair accessible. The exhibition includes one soft sculpture for visitors who would like to engage through touch, and seating is available for rest. The video contains flickering lights.

If you have specific access needs or questions prior to your visit, please reach out—we are committed to supporting visitors in experiencing the work.