September 10 - October 11, 2026

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, September 12, 4 - 6 PM ● ARTIST TALK: TBD

440 Gallery is pleased to present Collateral Blessings, a solo exhibition of abstract paintings by Catherine Orrok. The process underlying this work begins with a grid-based painting. Orrok then cuts the work into squares through a predetermined process that removes choice from the act itself. Balancing control and chance, she reassembles the pieces through intuitive visual decisions, transforming them into a new composition. Through this process of structure, disruption, and reconstruction, Collateral Blessings explores the dynamic relationship between intention and accident.

"Painting, for me, is a means of discovery that is entirely dependent on the dialogue I have with the work in front of me, where I turn myself over to the process.”

Catherine Orrok was born and raised in New Jersey and received her BA in Art from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 1982, she received her MFA from Hunter College. Orrok was represented by Yvonne Rapp Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky, until 1996. Additionally, her work was shown at Hunter College Gallery and the Clinton Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey. Lately, she has exhibited at SJC Brooklyn Arts Council, the Catskill Arts Space, Albany Center Gallery, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ, and, internationally, at EP Contemporary in Berlin, Germany. Orrok has recently had solo shows at Spoke the Hub and 440 Gallery, both in Brooklyn. This is her second solo show at 440 Gallery.

In the Project Space:

“Whispers of the Natural World”: Bunge, Cause, Destaing, Plenefisch

Artists have long drawn creative sustenance from nature. Jon Bunge, Ellen Chuse, Axelle Destaing, and Sohn Plenefisch are four artists who listen closely to what the natural world is telling them. The mediums they embrace are very diverse: painting, sculpture, and photography, but their connections to nature, at once personal and universal, unite them. The viewer is invited to slow down, look, and be a part of this dialogue.

Jon Bunge’s tree branch sculptures deftly capture some of the amazing qualities of nature. Working with branches gives him an intimate connection to the trees and the diversity of their forms, textures, and colors. Two pieces are mounted on a backing board and are meant to be hung on a wall, while the third work, Energy #18, sits on a pedestal. These sculptures bring the outside inside, asking us to contemplate just how extraordinary trees are. Anticipating future work, Bunge enthusiastically reports, “There are an estimated 73,000 species of trees on Earth, so I have plenty of material to work with.”

Ellen Chuse has long focused on exploring organic forms in nature and how these forms reflect and echo one another via wide variations in scale and context. In Whispers of the Natural World, she continues her investigation of these archetypal shapes. Using layers of saturated color, Chuse achieves a particular depth in these acrylic paintings on paper. We are enticed by the emotional resonance of her colors, and quiet contemplation can reveal a vibrancy that belies the simplicity of the forms.

At a time when the fragility of our environment calls for greater attention and care, Axelle Destaing’s photographs invite viewers to pause and reconnect with the living world. They are created using Intentional Camera Movement (ICM), a photographic technique that transforms moments of light, color, and motion into expressive abstract images. These works celebrate the beauty and quiet magic of the sea, sky, soil and air. Moving beyond mere description, they encourage us not only to see nature’s splendor, but to deepen our connection to it and recognize that we are inextricably linked to one another.

Sohn Plenefisch has always been moved by the vastness of the natural world and the often fraught relationship humans have with it. Anthropocene (i’m glad I didn’t die before i met you), is a painting made up of three canvases that overlap caddy-corner and pull the eye to the white-hot center. This in turn is surrounded by thetumultuous clouds of a smoke-filled sky. A lone bird in flight in the lower left corner, its wings and tail partially clipped by the edges of the canvas, is emblematic of its tenuous position as well as our own relationship to a drastically changing world.