Swarm Gallery: Renee Adams, Ria Brodell, Nathaniel Parsons

Review by John Casey: Swarm Gallery presents a two-person show of work by Renee Adams and Ria Brodell, with Nathaniel Parsons in the project space. Renee Adams sculpts fantasy flora in meticulous detail. Her use of polymer clay, wood, flocking, and other mixed media transcends the materials creating a surreal realism. You almost want to water these plant critters or feed them bugs. Ria Brodell's inventive pen and acrylic storybook illustrations reveal an odd landscape filled with human-bird hybrids, worm-bunnies, and bearded yaks. In the project space, Nathaniel Parsons displays his homemade midwestern ephemera. His work is imbued with a personal yet quirky American narrative, feeling both familiar and foreign.