Friends family III features the self-curated work of ten artists including Karin Bruckner, Stephen Cimini, Sandi Daniel, Azita Ghafouri, Kate Missett, Vera Sapozhnikova, Stewart Siskind, Christopher Skura, Marlena Vaccaro, John Wittenberg, and Young Ja Yoon. These artists have come together to create this exhibition in support of the Carter Burden Gallery’s mission. Represented is an array of mediums including painting, photography, sculpture, collage, mixed media, and works on paper.

In Friends family III Sandi Daniel explores themes of connection, impermanence, and regeneration by weaving together photographs of trees, creating intricate tapestries that merge time, texture, and perspective. She states, “Nature tells stories in layers—roots entwining beneath the soil, branches stretching toward the sky, histories etched into the bark.” Photography itself captures a single moment but by interlacing them, that stillness is disrupted, fractured, and reassembled into something new, just as a memory distorts and reconfigures our past.

Young Ja Yoon, born in Seoul, Korea in 1941, grew up on a farm in the countryside. Inspired by her childhood experiences during the Korean War, her series of Earth toned color field paintings embody the importance and necessity of food, shelter, and love. Yoon describes two grueling years fighting extreme cold, heat, and hunger until her family was able to return to their small farming village. She describes, “Finally, the war was over, and my family was together again… We could never forget the importance of soil in our life.”

John Wittenberg's work is deeply rooted in his observation of the physical world. His eye is drawn to the interaction of light and shadow and the natural cycle of growth, decay, and renewal. He is inspired by the transformations of objects in varying light and at the meeting points of different surfaces, a theme that has influenced his entire career. He prefers working with materials such as steel, stone, wood, and paper, allowing his ideas to evolve organically through the creative process.