SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Above Ground at Available Items

Installation photography by Available Items.

Above Ground, solo exhibition
October 10th - November 16th, 2025

Above Ground is an exhibition of sonic sculptures by Julia Elsas. Building on her long-running ceramic practice, Julia’s recent three-dimensional work grew out of her fascination with the sonic potential of clay. Inspired by the shape and sonority of traditional udu drums from Nigeria and ancient indigenous instruments from Mexico and South America, she creates modern ceramic instruments spanning flutes, drums, natural trumpets, clayrimbas, water whistles and more. In pursuit of activating her sculptures with sound, she started SONIC MUD, a band of professional musicians that play a range of ceramic instruments, all hand-built by Julia. The music is one-of-a-kind and improvisational, bringing to life the richly resonant and earthy sounds of clay.

You can see an exhibition checklist here and images from the October 10th performance here. Contact hi@availableitems.com for more information.

Banshees Remix at Asya Geisberg Gallery

Installation photography by Etienne Frossard

Banshees Remix
June 27 - August 8, 2025

Natalie Beall, Kat Chamberlin, Julia Elsas, Rachel Frank, Priscilla Fusco, Roxanne Jackson, Ellie Krakow, Gracelee Lawrence, Meg Lipke, Wen Liu, Anina Major, Mollie McKinley, Rose Nestler, Heidi Norton, Esther Ruiz, Carolyn Salas, Trish Tillman, Letha Wilson

Asya Geisberg Gallery is pleased to present Banshees Remix, a resurrected and expanded group exhibition of eighteen women sculptors whose work subverts gendered narratives and traditions through a manipulation of scale, material, and surface. This exhibition includes the eight original artists and adds ten additional artists to expand the scale, number, and references of artworks. The works’ physical presence negotiate tensions around mythology, history, science, healing, and the body. The artists work with several technologies using 3D printing, photography, and sound. The exhibition’s second iteration celebrates a return to the Banshee as a re-embodied cry of protest and refusal. With new artists in the mix, the Banshees' material choices and juxtapositions, such as concrete, neon, steel, ceramic, wood, glass, leather, medicinal plants, among others, activate the gallery’s new Tribeca space on Cortlandt Alley. 

On July 10, 6-8pm, Julia Elsas will perform on her hand-built ceramic instruments with a special all-female line up of Sonic Mud, where the musicians cry and wail, celebrating the powerful cycle of rebirth. 

“Lightly, lightly,
Ever brightly,
Moves the banshee, certain death.
Cry and call out,
Death will fall out.
Hold – you cannot hold — your breath.

Brilliant yellow
Is this fellow, 
Is the banshee, plumed and bright.
Lovers hearing
Listen, fearing.
Hark! who treads the plushy night?”

— The Banshee, by Virginia Moore, February 1942 

Unstuck in time: St. EOM, Pasaquan, Here, Now

Photos by Amy Pleasant

The Fuel and Lumber Company’s 2023 exhibition "Unstuck in Time: St. EOM, Pasaquan, Here, Now” showcased a diverse group of artists and artistic media. From painting to music and from sculpture to ceramics, the artists were carefully selected not only for their visual resonance with St. EOM's work but also for their shared vision, dedication to their craft, and belief in the power of art to transcend the present and open portals to new possibilities and worlds. The participating artists include Ryan Akers, David Onri Anderson, Merrilee Challiss, Julia Elsas, Erik Frydenborg, Leia Genis, Sonya Yong James, St. EOM, Robert Morgan, New Future City Radio (Damon Locks and Rob Mazurek), Sarah Peters, Sonic Mud (Julia Elsas, Kenny Wollesen, Kirk Knuffke, Madeleine Ventrice), and Sergio Suarez.

The exhibit was curated by The Fuel and Lumber Company (artists Amy Pleasant and Pete Schulte), who, with this exhibition, pay homage to the spirit of Pasaquan and St. EOM's profound artistic legacy. Sonic Mud performed at the Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, GA and at Pasaquan in Buena Vista, GA during the September 2023 opening weekend.

MATERIAL / INHERITANCE

Photos by Sid Keiser

MATERIAL / INHERITANCE features the work of 30 former and current New Jewish Culture Fellows at The Jewish Museum, Maryland.

The exhibition featured work by Hadar Ahuvia, Jett Allen, Zoë Aqua, Liat Berdugo, Danielle Durchslag, Jay Eddy, Laura Elkeslassy, Julia Elsas, Dan Fishback, Fancy Feast, Ben Gassman, Ariel Goldberg, Shterna Goldbloom, Jake Goldwasser, Adam Golfer, Tom Haviv, Adah Hetko, Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky, Ellie Lobovits, Michael McCanne, Tyler Rai, Nora Rodriguez, Naomi Safran-Hon, Arielle Stein, Nat Sufrin, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Ira Khonen Temple, Katz Tepper, Daniel Terna, and Mariya Zilberman

The exhibition was curated by Leora Fridman, writer, educator, Curator-in-Residence at the Jewish Museum, Maryland and New Jewish Culture Fellow. Read an exhibition review in Hyperallergic.

CHIME CHOIR

Photos by Michael Yarinsky

Porcelain, wood, linen, 2020

Site Specific Installation at Cooler Gallery, Brooklyn, NY.

Chime Choir was an installation of 1,250 microtonal porcelain chimes. Visitors were invited to interact with the installation and play the chimes with felt hand mallets provided, adding their own music to a continuous loop in the Cooler Gallery space. The sound loop was created by musicians Kenny Wollesen and William Shore and myself. We recorded the piece in February 2020 at Figure 8 studio with Michael Coleman.

I created Chime Choir to be an encompassing communal instrument that people could move in and out of and play freely, simultaneously alone and together over a span of time. My aim was to create an environment in which everyone may feel embraced and touched by the music of Chime Choir. Chime Choir grew out of my ongoing exploration of the sonic potential of sculpture. I consider my sculptures to be fully realized when they are being played. To this end, I have organized a series of unique one-of-a-kind performances, under the name SONIC MUD, which brings together my ceramic sculptures and musicians.