NEXT EXIT
02.12.26 - 04.04.26
Atlanta
Group Show
NEXT EXIT
Next Exit brings together a group of works that engage the automobile as a site of translation - between design and image, movement and suspension, intention and drift. Across sculpture, painting, photography, and object-based practices, automotive forms and materials appear not as illustrations or symbols, but as propositions: fragments of systems shaped by repetition, calibration, and choice.
The automobile occupies a peculiar register - at once utilitarian and charged, disciplined and excessive. It moves bodies through space while absorbing layers of projection, desire, and authorship. Within the exhibition, surfaces, finishes, scales, and engineered details operate as points of entry rather than explanation. Meaning emerges obliquely, through proximity, alignment, and refusal.
A 1997 Bentley Brooklands is installed within the gallery not as centerpiece, but as measure. Its presence establishes a tempo - one of restraint, craft, and material intelligence - against which the surrounding works are read. Positioned among artworks, the vehicle collapses distinctions between art object and designed object, proposing a continuum rather than a hierarchy.
The title Next Exit signals a moment within motion: an interval where direction remains undecided. As with navigation, orientation is contingent - shaped by context, interruption, and return. Authorship disperses across object, space, and viewer, recomposing itself with each encounter.
Formerly dedicated to the housing and restoration of classic automobiles, the gallery retains traces of its prior use. The exhibition neither reenacts nor resolves this history; it allows works to circulate within it. Movement is understood here not as spectacle, but as condition - through which form, meaning, and value remain provisional.
Construct Gallery is pleased to present Next Exit, a group exhibition featuring works by Zoe Alameda, Emily Baker, Brock DeBoer, Joe Garvey, Garrett Gilbart, George Hinks, Artemus Jenkins, KUENZELZELLER, Akiva Listman, B. Thom Stevenson, and Logan Wayne White.
Spanning sculpture, painting, photography, and object-based practices, the exhibition examines the automobile as a site of translation between design and image, movement and stillness, precision and deviation.
Throughout the exhibition, the automobile is not approached as a symbol or narrative device, but as a structural condition. Its surfaces, materials, and mechanical logics circulate through the works as fragments that are reiterated, reconfigured, and displaced. Meaning emerges through alignment and contrast, as engineered systems give way to aesthetic propositions.
At the center of the gallery space, a 1997 Bentley Brooklands operates as both spatial anchor and conceptual reference. Neither centerpiece nor backdrop, the vehicle establishes a register of craft, restraint, and material intelligence that resonates across the exhibition. Positioned among the artworks, it collapses distinctions between art object and designed object, situating both within a continuum of use, authorship, and desire.
The exhibition’s title, Next Exit, evokes a moment within motion—a pause where direction remains unresolved. Like navigation itself, the experience of the exhibition is shaped by trajectory and interruption. As viewers move through the space, authorship disperses across object, environment, and observer, recomposing with each passage.
Housed in a former facility for storing and restoring classic automobiles, Construct Gallery retains traces of its prior function. Next Exit does not seek to resolve this history, but to inhabit it—allowing contemporary works to circulate within a space long dedicated to care, maintenance, and mechanical refinement. Movement is framed not as spectacle, but as a condition through which form, meaning, and value remain provisional.
Featured Works
About the Artists
Zoe Alameda (b.2000) layers images and material to trace a restless search for connection. Drawing from digital culture, commercial iconography, and the visual landscape of Los Angeles, her paintings and sculptures navigate tensions–between real and reproduced, presence and absence, distraction and focus–as tools to explore fragmentation and the evolving sense of self. Through this interplay, Alameda’s practice becomes a space where emotion and identity engage in constant dialogue. She longs for moments that linger, for clarity beyond the noise. Alameda received her BFA at the University of Southern California in 2023 and attended the Yale Norfolk School of Art residency in 2022.
Emily Baker (b.1989) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in Atlanta, Georgia. She was born in Grass Valley, California and received her BFA in Interior Design from California State University, Chico. She received her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016.
She taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara in The College of Creative Studies as the Teaching Fellow and in the Art Department, and at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria and Lompoc, CA. She then worked as a Full Time Lecturer and Sculpture Area Coordinator at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.
Emily has shown her work nationally and internationally. Residencies include Salem Art Works (Salem, NY), The Vermont Studio (Johnson, VT), The Steel Yard (Providence, RI) and The Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM) during their 2020 Labor theme.
She was awarded an exploratory research grant at the Hagley Museum to examine DuPont’s contribution to the textile industry, specifically their role in women’s fashion during the rebirth of nylon’s image post-WWII. She presented her work at the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art in Berlin, Germany.
Brock DeBoer’s (b.1985) artistic process as a ceramic sculptor utilizes porcelain, historical motifs, and surface treatments to re-contextualize everyday objects, items from his past, and objects of popular culture.
Many are highly nostalgic to his generation and beyond touching on many facets of everyday life. DeBoer’s highly crafted casts in porcelain become archival, altering their permanence while questioning the value of these everyday objects.
DeBoer draws influence from his midwestern upbringing combined with the ever-changing and vastly diverse landscape of Los Angeles and the rural landscape of Joshua Tree.
Joe Garvey (b.1983) was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has been based in New York City since 2009. His practice seeks to understand and create community around creative endeavors. Working in assorted media and happenings, Garvey explores the anxiety of modernity and contemporary American life.
Garrett Gilbart is a professional sculptor from Douro, east of Peterborough Ontario Initially studying welding and fabrication at Sir Sanford Fleming College, before receiving their BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, and briefly studied abroad at the Gerrit Rietveld Acadamie in Amsterdam.
Garrett describes themself as “a carver of unnatural materials, instead of wood and stone, I carve discarded tools, car parts and other salvaged steel objects collected from the forests and scrapyards of rural Ontario”.
George Hinks (b.1996) - Portsmouth, England
Studio currently based in Stratford, London
Artemus Jenkins is an experimental ethnographer whose artistic work, encompasses photography, documentary filmmaking, and collage, delves into the concept of energetic memory; the unseen but potent imprints of experiences, emotions, and histories carried within spaces, objects, and individuals. His practice engages themes of identity, cultural heritage, spirituality, and resilience, specifically within the African Diaspora, recording historical transformation as it unfolds. Artemus utilizes collage and assemblage to explore a language of fractured storytelling, which mirrors the complex process of piecing together our identities within the African Diaspora. His intention is to unify these fragmented narratives into a holistic representation of our lived experiences. Works currently being created through this residency will embody objects designed for the home, represented through the intentional upcycling of everyday materials found in domestic spaces.
Fabian Künzel-Zeller, a trained graphic designer, studied fashion design and worked in London, Stockholm, Berlin, and Leipzig in design and brand communication.
KUENZELZELLER bridges artistic exploration and visual consultancy. Offering services including the creation of custom imagery for individuals and curated visual worlds for interior designers, architects, and brands.
New York City based artist Akiva Listman works to distill city views to their essential elements through his paintings. Photos of the streetscape provide a foundation for each composition before being reduced to highlight each object's complexity and individuality. As a third generation New Yorker, Listman meticulously observes the city and draws inspiration from areas of family history. He brings humor, personification, and relatability to each work through references to pop culture, shared experience, and personal stories.
B. Thom Stevenson, lives and works in Worcester, MA. B. Thom is a multifaceted artist who explores the intersections between subcultures by boiling down their artifacts in order to juxtapose them in visually impactful dialogues, pairing both original and sourced materials to form a unique vocabulary. His practice explores the use of language as imagery, and pictures as tools of ambiguous stimuli for the viewer.
Logan Wayne White (b. 1991, Los Angeles) is an American artist and furniture designer based in Atlanta, Georgia. White's work asserts presence through mass, symmetry, cantilevers and black structures. Built from a language of black planes, right-angled forms, and militant repetition, his practice operates in the charged space between sculpture and function, art and design.