Sahar Khoury: Orchard

“Please leave me alone. I’m dreaming.” 

-Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard

Rebecca Camacho Presents is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Oakland CA based sculptor Sahar Khoury. Marking a second presentation at the gallery, Khoury debuts an ensemble of two- and three-dimensional landscape constructions in metal, ceramic, paper-mâché and wood pruned from the artists’ own walnut and apple trees.

Begun prior to though deeply influenced by time spent as an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Fall 2021, Khoury’s introduction of wood to her practice is one of seasonal maintenance turned material inquiry. While at the Headlands, Khoury brought pruned walnut branches from her yard and tension suspended them in the studio window. Those same branches find their way into the chandelier mobile that hovers over the main space in Orchard. Representational ceramic trees, akin to pages from a children’s book, oscillate between deciduous and evergreen.

Khoury’s work often reflects an exterior everydayness comprised of personal specificities. Within this fold the artist integrates elements of her interior environment to the exhibition. The sole human figure in the show is a paper-mâché and ceramic wall piece recreating a small segment of Khoury’s own living room rug. Lola, Khoury’s tuxedo cat, locally cast in aluminum by the artist, makes an appearance on a four-legged table in the front window of the gallery.

Centered in the back room is a rectangular sculpture, a time machine of sorts, documenting an accumulation of cement and ceramic parts begun in 2017 and finished this year. The piece stands in stark contrast to the other works in color and scale but shares the common sensibility of a landscape in transition.