We Live in the Trees

Kelly-McKenna Gallery presents We Live in the Trees, a group exhibition bringing together works by American artists Phyllis Rosser, Paul Leibow, and Jesse Hickman, and German photographer and mixed media artist Ulf Saupe. The exhibition examines the spaces in which we live and work, and the ways artists draw inspiration from their immediate environments: spaces shaped by routine, labor, memory, and quiet observation. Through painting, photography, and mixed media, the exhibition considers how everyday surroundings become sites of reflection, attention, and creative renewal.

Rather than treating environment as a backdrop, We Live in the Trees brings together artists whose practices are rooted in sustained engagement with place. Trees, landscapes, and natural forms appear not as symbols of escape, but as extensions of lived space. The exhibition explores how creative practices emerge from proximity and repetition, from looking closely at what surrounds us, and from inhabiting a place long enough for meaning to accumulate.

Phyllis Rosser’s sculptures arise from careful observation of the natural world as it intersects with lived experience. Her work balances representation and abstraction, allowing branches, trunks, and forested spaces to dissolve into layered fields of color and gesture. Rosser’s work reflects the act of returning to the same visual territory, revealing how sustained attention transforms familiar spaces into sources of inspiration and calm.

Paul Leibow’s sculptural works examine the architecture of everyday life, using the familiar form of the house as a site of imagination, memory, and emotional projection. Constructed from modest materials and often elevated on slender supports, Leibow’s structures suggest spaces that are both habitable and precarious. Windows glow, roofs tilt, and interiors are implied rather than revealed, evoking the quiet inner life of domestic and working spaces. These sculptures operate as portraits of lived environments, reflecting how creativity takes root within imperfect shelters, routines, and dreams. In We Live in the Trees, Leibow’s work underscores the idea that inspiration often emerges not from grand spaces, but from the intimate, provisional structures we build around ourselves.

Jesse Hickman’s practice is shaped by lived experience and the spaces that define it. Drawing from rural environments and personal history, his work reflects on how landscapes bear witness to labor, movement, and memory. Trees and natural settings in Hickman’s imagery function as markers of time and continuity, grounding human narratives within the environments where life unfolds.

Photographer Ulf Saupe brings a process-driven approach that emphasizes direct engagement with place. Using alternative photographic techniques, including cyanotype and camera-less processes, Saupe allows natural elements to register light, time, and contact. His work treats environment as collaborator rather than subject, underscoring how inspiration emerges through physical interaction with the spaces one inhabits and works within.

We Live in the Trees proposes that inspiration is often found not in distant landscapes, but in sustained relationship with the environments that shape our daily lives. By examining the spaces where living and working intersect, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how creativity is nurtured through attention, presence, and an openness to what is already around us.