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Essex Flowers' front entrance and front gallery are wheelchair accessible. Our back gallery is accessible through a side entrance (please speak with the gallery sitter upon arrival). Our bathroom is not wheelchair accessible.


apexart @ essex flowers

EXPIRED
February 7 - March 7, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 7, 6 - 8pm



Carol Saft, Bedtime Mask, 2024
Acrylic on canvas, 20 × 20”

 

Curated by Roxanne Wolanczyk

Featuring work by Carol Saft, Kenneth Zoran Curwood and Roxanne Wolanczyk


EXPIRED looks at how aging is framed in a culture that often treats relevance as temporary and youth as a requirement for visibility. The title plays on the dual meaning of expired: a Gen Z term for being past one's prime and a clinical expression for death. The exhibition asks how we confront time, transformation, and the inevitability of mortality.

Saft's intimate paintings depict her wife beneath a red LED skincare mask, a tool marketed for rejuvenation. The glowing portraits convey tenderness while revealing the internalized pressures placed on aging bodies, turning self-care into a ritual shaped by cultural expectations.

Curwood contributes multimedia works focused on obsolescence and time's passage. A mounted leaf slowly decays, and an analog sculpture modeled after an Amazon Echo humorously reflects the disconnect between older generations and rapidly changing technology.

Wolanczyk presents text-based ceramic vessels that blend classical form with personal declaration. These works acknowledge both fragility and endurance as time reshapes the body and identity. They assert that relevance does not expire and claim space for continued transformation.

A curatorial tour will be held on Instagram Live at 5pm on February 7th. Tune in here: @apexartnyc

EXPIRED was selected through apexart’s Open Call (291 Church Street New York, NY 10013). For more information visit https://apexart.org/wolanczyk.php or contact maryam.ghoreishi@apexart.org

EXPIRED gallery hours: Thursday - Sunday, 11am - 6pm


PUBLIC PROGRAMMING

Penny Arcade: Use By Due Date

Penny Arcade presents a short performance in conjunction with Expired. Across a career spanning five decades, her work has confronted cultural expectations with wit, urgency, and incisive honesty. Her presence in the gallery affirms endurance—an artistic practice that continues to evolve, resisting erasure and expiration.

Bio: Penny Arcade (Susana Ventura) is a New York–based performance artist, writer, and theater maker whose long-form, text-based work bridges experimental theater and performance art. Centered on community and cultural critique, her practice has established her as a true original on the mainstream international stage.

In the Time That Remains — Closing Reception with Laetitia Barbier

During the closing reception, visitors may reserve a brief private tarot session with Laetitia Barbier. Sessions take place in a quiet area toward the rear of the exhibition and are offered as part of the exhibition’s closing program. The gallery remains open and social, with the curator present throughout.
Tarot sessions are by reservation, with walk-ins pending availability.

Bio: Laetitia Barbier is an independent scholar, tarot reader, and teacher with a background in art history. Formerly the programming director at Morbid Anatomy, she is the author of Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive (2021) and regularly collaborates with artists and cultural institutions.