Photographed by: Adrian Wilson

An exhibition curated by Michael Holden

The exhibition Two Is Greater Than One explores how relationships are integral to the creative process. 2 > 1 highlights not only the connections within each artwork but also the dialogues that emerge between them, expanding the exhibition through cross-currents and affinities.

Featuring six esteemed artists who are also three married couples—Jennifer Coates & David Humphrey, Jane Fine & James Esber, and Erica Svec & Zachary Wollard—the show brings together individuals selected for their artistic excellence as well as for the creative discourse of their partnerships. The uniqueness of each artist enriches and strengthens their shared lives, exemplifying how both human experience and art are inspired and shaped by relationships. Beginning with the lives of the three artist couples, 2 > 1 highlights the role of relationships—both personal and creative—in the making of art. Every artist first engages in a dialogue with their medium, a relationship that sparks thought and gives form to images. As the work develops, its own voice emerges, guiding the artist’s connection to the fundamentals of art and shaping a unique composition. Each piece holds within it a network of connections, reflecting the very state of “being in relation.” In 2 > 1, the exhibited artworks embody relationships of many kinds: with self, family, culture, nature, environment, mysticism, technology, the pandemic, and so forth. Culture itself depends both on the depth of the individual’s inner journey and on their ability to observe and give voice to what it means to be human, fully engaged in the shared fabric of their time.

The artworks in 2 > 1 manifest the artists’ relationships to all stages of life, from past and present to foresight of the future. They testify to how all relationships that affect the human journey are relevant to the making of an artwork. Artworks are poetic notations from this journey of life.

2 > 1 will be on view at 1GAP Gallery through 1/5/26.  The gallery is located at 1 Grand Army Plaza, across the street from the Brooklyn Library, a few short blocks from the Brooklyn Art Museum, and easily accessible by subway.

Please make an appointment to view the exhibition. For further information, please email: parkplacegallerybklyn@gmail.com .

About the Artists:

Jennifer Coates is an artist working in Brooklyn, NY and Lakewood, PA. Most recently, she has had solo shows at Tyler Park Presents (Los Angeles) and Pamela Salisbury (Hudson, NY). Last year she mounted “Edge Effects,” a solo show spanning two galleries in NYC at High Noon and Chart (2024). She has been included in notable group shows at Acquavella Galleries (NYC and Palm Beach); Bates College Museum of Art; Aicon Gallery; and Eric Firestone Gallery among many others. She was the 2021 recipient of the John Koch Art Award in Painting from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a 2021 NYFA Award in painting; a 2019 Fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation; and a Sharpe Walentas Studio residency (2018-2019). Her work has been written about in publications such as Artforum, the Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, Two Coats of Paint, Bomb Magazine, the Huffington Post, Art News and Smithsonian Journeys. Recent paintings and writing will be featured in the forthcoming book “Nature into Art: Landscape Then and Now” by Marcia B. Hall and Dana Prescott, published by Brepols in the Harvey Miller Art History series.

David Humphrey is a New York artist who has shown nationally and internationally. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rome Prize among other awards. An anthology of his art writing, Blind Handshake, was published by Periscope Publishing. He teaches in the MFA program at Columbia University and is represented by the Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, NY who published a monograph on his work in 2020 by Davy Lauterbach.

Jane Fine has lived and worked in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, since 1986. Jane studied painting at Harvard University, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Skowhegan. She is a recipient of grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment of the Arts and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation and has been a resident at Yaddo, MacDowell, The Fine Arts Work Center, The Golden Foundation and more. Her work was represented by Brooklyn’s iconic Pierogi Gallery. In addition, Jane has had one-person shows at Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston, Bernard Toale Gallery in Boston, Michael Rosenthal Gallery in San Francisco, and White Columns and Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York City. In 2024 Jane Fine received the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in painting and her work was included in The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition at The Brooklyn Museum and in Abstraction by Any Other Name, curated by Dan Cameron at the Resnick/Passlof Foundation. Jane will be working at MacDowell for 6 weeks in October and November 2025.

James Esber has shown his work in New York and beyond, including a 25-year survey at the Clifford Gallery at Colgate University (2014) and a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT (2011). He has had multiple one-person shows at PPOW, NYC, Bernard Toale in Boston, and Pierogi in both New York and Leipzig. He has also shown widely in group exhibitions, including ASKEW at D.C. Moore Gallery (2022), Flex at the Tang Museum (2020), Now What? at The Norton Museum of Art (2011), and SITE Santa Fe’s Fifth International Biennial: Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque (2004). He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Erica Svec was born in Muenster, Germany. She attended Penn State University, BFA painting and Bard College, MFA painting and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ‘99. She has had solo shows in New York and Los Angeles and participated in group shows in Belgium, Japan and Miami amongst others. Her work is included in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her paintings have been written about in the Brooklyn Rail and Artforum. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Bradford, Vermont.

Zachary Wollard attended Columbia University and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, Madrid, Los Angeles, and Munich. Group exhibitions include Lehman Maupin, Kavi Gupta and Foortlaan 17. His work has been reviewed in the New York Times and Artforum and is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum. He was awarded a Sharpe Walentas Studio Residency in 2015. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Bradford Vermont.