Falls’ new Ikebana series was inspired by ikebana flower arrangement works created for an exhibition at Sogetsu Plaza organized in collaboration with The North Face in 2025. The ceramic components feature flowers and plants embedded in wet clay and fired, followed by glaze and glass used in a second firing. Influenced by his experience with Sogetsu, Falls has now included vase-like elements on the works for installing flowers. These works feature arrangements of fresh flowers from Tokyo that connect the works to their exhibition in Japan. In addition to embodying the ephemerality of life and the cycles of nature in a multilayered fashion, the works take on a life of their own through the arrangement of local flora as it changes through the seasons.

The Bellows series consists of rain paintings that Falls made in his own garden in Los Angeles. Based on what can be seen through the bellows of a large format camera, the central image is one exposure to the rain and weather, around which is a double exposure to rain, the elements, and resetting plants, which in turn is surrounded by an external border consisting of a triple exposure of plants and rain. These works are a visual representation of his depth of field and Falls’ creative process, along with an homage to the lasting influence of film photography as it continues to disappear from the practice of professional photography.

The sculpture Tower of light features “runs” of ceramics set within aluminum i-beams. Each line of ceramics are composed of plants collected from a trail-hike in Griffith Park – Los Angeles’ public nature preserve. The organic material and subject matter refer to both a time and place of natural experience and creation, while the structure that holds them create a juxtaposition as i-beams represent the common building blocks of modern architecture in urban development. This relationship speaks both to the modern human life of our organic bodies so often contained in geometric spaces, as well as the inversion of minimalism so often used to outlast nature and almost stand against it – they are an effort to warm up this cold aesthetic that is intelligent design but lacking feeling. Standing over two meters tall, it exudes a mysterious force, as if the light emitted by the plants themselves were reaching upward.

Sun fade is from a group of naturally hand-dyed works made outdoors with sunlight over a long period of time. These works are made by using natural dyes from cochinelle to sequoia seeds (as in the work here) and then sewing on plants to the canvas and leaving it outside over the course of spring, summer, and fall. The sun fades the color away yet the plants create a ghostly image as they retain their withered form, speaking again to the passage of time and mortality while preserving a hope within color, representation, aging. The restrained palette is reminiscent of black and white photography as well as the boldness of natural color, history of representation, and the intensity of sunlight.

I think an important element in my works is ‘melancholy,’ which I believe is the best word to describe it. It does not mean total sadness or darkness; instead, I find a hopefulness in this emotional content that deals with the passing time……Growth and decay. For me, this combination is the heart of the matter.

Sam Falls continues to explore the deeper reaches of major themes such as time, life, death, and nature, while constantly challenging himself with new techniques and modes of artistic expression. We hope you will take this opportunity to come to appreciate his latest worldview, which conveys a sense of the true joy of living.