Gifts Of The Soil

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. 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. 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. Shara Mays contributes large-scale gestural abstractions that emerge from the interplay of landscape, instinctual figuration, and personal identity. Utilizing layered oil paint, her compositions resonate with narratives tied to land and communal belonging. John Reno Jackson’s small-scale geometric abstractions are rooted in the cultural iconography of the Cayman Islands, incorporating motifs inspired by silver thatch weaving, natural elements, and found materials. Madjeen Isaac continues her exploration of diasporic belonging through hybridized landscapes that merge her Haitian heritage with the urban environment of Brooklyn, New York. Victor Olaoye’s gestural abstraction paintings delve into themes of life cycles and decay to interrogate the fragility and resilience of our environment. He blends elements of organic, surreal, and bodily forms in an earthy palette reminiscent of the agricultural terrains of Western Nigeria, as he creates ambiguity in a space where collapse and regeneration coexist. Izere Antoine presents impressionistic landscapes drawn from the verdant topography of Rwanda, evoking a quiet intimacy with the land. Laju Sholola debuts works from her new “Dark” series, which uses mixed media to reflect on uncertainty, introspection, and resilience through a palette of muted tones and shadowy figures. Nedia Were’s large-scale figurative paintings pay homage to the Kenyan countryside and the layered construction of identity. Nathalie Djakou Kassi contributes wooden sculptures that reinterpret traditional Cameroonian forms such as the palaver chair and stool, invoking themes of dialogue, heritage, and communal gathering. 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. Event Details Exhibition Title: Gifts of The Soil. Opening Reception: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Saturday. July 19th. Public viewing: July 19th to August 16th , 2025. Location: Mitochondria Gallery, 2220 Commerce Street, #D, Houston, TX. 77002 More Info below.