Union Gallery
WHAT A WALL HOLDS
curated by Jilaine Jones
An Exhibition of Bas-Reliefs
November 9, 2025 – February 11, 2026
Opening reception: November 9, 3:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Wagner College Union Gallery is pleased to present an exhibit curated by Jilaine Jones, Sculpture Atelier Leader at the New York Studio School. The exhibit questions, and perhaps even expands, the notion of what bas-relief can be. Participating artists include: Gal Amit, Cathy Deuschle, Katherine Earle, Reiko Ishiyama, Jilaine Jones, Jenny Toth and Amelia Wykes.
Bas-relief is an art form that spans the divide between the illusionistic dimension of painting and the real dimension of sculpture. Navigating this intermediate place can be perplexing, creating quandaries and revelations peculiar to the discipline. Jones is intimately familiar with this territory. The selected artists have all worked with her as students and independently, but their singular vision and investigation have helped her better understand the potential of this art form.
Jones states, “Relief work makes a unique, natural companionship to each artist and reveals a surprising wisdom about reality and art, the private and interactive. It has had a crucial effect on my work as a sculptor for how it can embody the seen and felt world, to understand the spatial as material.”
And she offers this: “I have come to feel relief’s connection to the wall as profoundly embedded in the ar as t form. The wall is our second skin, perhaps the first human made form, the protective element. What it holds, is a consciousness about the intimacy and tactility of place and imagination about what is outside, beyond it.”
For Jilaine Jones, this exhibit celebrates her experience of, and conviction for, teaching and working in bas-relief over many years. All those influenced and enriched by her art and teaching celebrate her devotion to championing this undersung art form.
Spotlight Gallery
residual overflow
from the archives of studio markus haala
October 15 – November 15, 2025
Wagner College is delighted to present Residual Overflow, a solo exhibi:on by ar:st Markus Haala. The show features a series of objects, material experiments, prints, and videos that exist in a state of transi9on: simultaneously in flux and par9ally re9red. Func9oning as an open sketchbook, the exhibi9on reveals the ar9st’s process of exploring, tes9ng, and transforming materials and ideas across natural and synthe9c systems.Â
Through acts of reformaBng and juxtaposi9on, the works probe the shiCing boundaries between organic and ar9ficial worlds, crea9ng visual and conceptual tensions that illuminate how symbols of nature and technology intersect. The resul9ng material language seems to distance itself from the natural world yet quietly reveals its lingering presence.Â
About the Ar:stÂ
Markus Haala is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary ar9st and educator whose prac9ce explores the entanglements of nature, technology, and material transforma9on. Working across sculpture, digital media, printmaking, and installa9on, his projects examine the ways in which ar9ficial systems mimic, distort, or reinterpret natural processes. Haala teaches at Wagner College.
Gallery Director: Jenny Toth
Email: jtoth@wagner.edu
Phone: (718)-420-4132 or (718)-390-3192
| Union Gallery Address: Union Hall (Main Floor), Wagner College One Campus Road Staten Island, NY 10301Gallery Hours: Monday-Sunday 7am -10:30pm |
Spotlight Gallery Address: Horrmann Library, Wagner College One Campus Road Staten Island, NY 10301Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 9am -5pm |