Women & Their Work presents "Treespell," a solo exhibition of multi-sensory works in an immersive installation by artist Elizabeth Chapin.

In the exhibition, Chapin delves into the natural and mythological realms to comment with dark whimsy on the transformative power of the gaze, and the interconnectedness of all living things. Her work draws on personal, historical, and imaginative elements, which she uses to alternately wield and subvert notions of viewership and voyeurism.

Chapin will be in conversation with artist Shahzia Sikander as part of the gallery’s ongoing TalkAbout series.

"Treespell" is inspired by the Greek goddess Artemis and the myth of Actaeon the hunter. In the myth, Actaeon surreptitiously watched Artemis bathing, a violation for which she transformed him into a stag and shot him through with arrows. Artemis’s swift and vengeful rejection of Actaeon’s gaze resonated with Chapin’s complex relationship with viewing and viewership as a visual artist. Exhausted by constantly observing her work and being observed through her work in turn, the artist aims to turn her attention to the very question of viewership itself. Chapin views Artemis as both a “gaze-destroyer” and as a divine symbol of non-separateness or non-dualism, a belief that humans are inextricably one with the natural world, the spiritual realm, and each other. From this perspective, the gaze itself arises from an illusion of separateness between one who looks and one who is looked upon.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until March 7.