Mitochondria Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Gifts of the Soil, a group exhibition that brings together works by Shara Mays, Victor Olaoye, John Reno Jackson, Madjeen Isaac, Nedia Were, Izere Antoine, Laju Sholola, and Nathalie Djakou Kassi. The exhibition will be on view beginning July 19, 2025, at the gallery’s East Downtown Houston location.
Artist: Shara Mays. Millia. Oil on Canvas. 2025.
Gifts of the Soil offers a critical examination of the reciprocal relationship between the local ecosystem and the formation of individual and collective identity. The exhibition considers how ecological contexts influence memory, belonging, and cultural continuity, proposing that land is not merely a passive backdrop but an active agent in the construction of meaning.
Artist: John Reno Jackson. Machineel. 2025
The featured artists, based across North America (Madjeen Isaac, Victor Olaoye), South America (Shara Mays), Europe (John Reno Jackson, Laju Sholola), and Africa (Izere Antoine, Nathalie Djakou Kassi), engage with themes of heritage, cultural transmission, and adaptive transformation. Their diverse practices, spanning painting and sculpture, explore land as a generative force that both sustains and complicates notions of self and community.
Artist: Victor Olaoye. Torso. Acrylic on Canvas. 2025.
By foregrounding the soil—both materially and metaphorically—as a site of origin, knowledge, and memory, Gifts of the Soil prompts reflection on the role of the environment as a cultural archive. The exhibition situates artistic practice as a mode of ecological inquiry, revealing how creative engagement with place can generate new understandings of identity, history, and collective experience.
For the exhibition preview, please contact us at [email protected]
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19th. 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm.
Public Viewing: July 19th - August 16th, 2025
Address: 2220 Commerce Street #D, Houston, Texas. 77002
Phone: +1.832.271.0193
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