Mutations
Mutations Paul Mesaros Gallery,
Canady Creative Arts Center at West Virginia University
Jan 29- Feb 28, 2025

In Mutations (2024-ongoing), Catanese combines darkroom experiments and archival images with newly made images from coastal and geological exploration. Central to the exhibition are photograms crafted from remnants of the historic carbon printing process–abstract fossils from pigmented gelatin that suggest transformation and evoke introspection. Her photographs of bull kelp formations along the Pacific coast function as both observational studies and visceral metaphors, signaling bull kelp’s fragile role within environmental change while eliciting a bodily, almost intestinal response. Displayed alongside images of aquatic life, geological evidence, and archival materials, her work examines the interplay between human documentation and the psychological tension between abstraction and observation. Mutations blurs artistic boundaries, embracing the recycling of motifs and the spirit of experimentation. Through seemingly dissonant yet interconnected elements, Catanese offers a meditation on ecological fragility, deep time, and the evolving nature of creative practice.