May 2025
softedge
May 3 - May 30
Opening Reception on Arts Night Out
softedge refers to the space between self and other, internal and external, where an ending holds the simultaneity of sharpness and a soft beginning.
Mystic and symbolic, Lena’s work contemplates both the beauty and pain of healing and being human. Rae’s work lives in the reverb of dualities: despair-hope, loss-joy, dis-connection, in-decision – where aliveness finds weight and heft when framed by the fact of death.
In dialogue, these works share a meditative and maximalist sensibility, which offers the viewer a container for their own transcendent and most human need - a place where joy and grief are held as one.
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Lena Mac (b. Boston, 1992, she/her/hers) is an American visual artist. Her practice primarily consists of painting, making large scale murals and more recently, three-dimensional objects of wood and ceramics.
Inspired by the natural world, contemporary illustration and her personal experiences, Mac’s work combines figurative symbols with abstracted forms to create metaphorical spaces that contemplate mysterious aspects of the world around us.
In 2016, Lena began painting in the streets while living in Santiago, Chile and has since continued to paint in public spaces across the world. She has participated in numerous mural festivals and been an artist in residence with La Sierra Foundation (2023 Colombia), Dripped on the Road traveling residency (2021 USA), and Watershed Studios (2019 Ireland).
Lena holds a BFA in painting from Boston University. She is a recipient of the Mass Cultural Council Grant for Creative Individuals, the Blanche E. Coleman award and the Mass MoCA Assets for Artists grant.
Lena lives and works in Western Massachusetts.
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Rae Heller (b. NYC, no pronouns) is an artist primarily creating large scale quilts. Rae graduated from Simmons College with a BA in Arts Administration and Art. Rae’s quilts queers the line between art and craft. Rae’s textile work uplifts sustainability as a generative practice, focusing on using repurposed fabric, as well as scrap by-products of the artmaking process to create. The durable softness of quilts celebrate the dualities of daily living.
Rae lives and works in southern Vermont and teaches quilting as an artform at Marlboro Studio School and Looky Here in Greenfield, Massachusetts