Split Level 2026: Featuring Paul Leibow & Jenny Day

Kelly-McKenna Gallery presents sculptural works by Jenny Day and Paul Leibow at SPLIT LEVEL 2026. Bringing together Day’s ceramic interpretations of everyday objects and Leibow’s imaginative architectural assemblages, the presentation explores the expressive possibilities of familiar things: what we consume, what we keep, and the places we call home.

Through humor, unexpected materials, and the evidence of the artist’s hand, Day and Leibow transform everyday familiarity into an invitation to look more closely.

Day’s stoneware and glazed sculptures draw on the objects that populate daily life. Pizzas, hot dogs, candy, fruit, a shoe, keys, and a cell phone become small sculptural encounters, their recognizable forms animated by irregular surfaces and vivid color. Works including Pizza #1–4, Hot Dog #1 and Hot Dog #2, Candy #1, Banana #2, and Shoe, all from 2026, bring a playful material presence to the presentation. Other works—including Letter, Socks – Set of (2), and Sharpies – Set of (2)—turn attention toward the easily overlooked objects of ordinary routines.

Rendered in ceramic, these familiar subjects acquire a different weight and permanence. Their appeal begins with recognition, then shifts toward the textures, gestures, and small departures that distinguish a handmade object from its everyday counterpart.

Leibow’s sculptures bring together domestic architecture, found materials, and unexpected mechanical elements. In Flower House (2025), an antique bird cage, wallpaper, sculpted wire, and papier-mâché form an imaginative assemblage. Untitled (Speakers of the house) (2026) incorporates analog speakers, metal, wire, LED illumination, vintage handmade paper, and a transistor radio, placing the house in conversation with the materials of sound and communication. Untitled (Hole) (2026) similarly reworks a vintage wood speaker with metal, wire, handmade paper, and acrylic paint.

At 66 inches tall, Wheelhouse (2026) extends this vocabulary into a striking vertical sculpture. An aluminum wheel and LED illumination rise above a house-shaped form, bringing an industrial framework into contact with acrylic paint, charcoal, pastel, and parchment on canvas. The work joins the suggestion of movement with the familiar image of shelter.

Presented within Rimadesio’s New York showroom, the works enter a setting already shaped by furniture, architecture, and domestic use. This context gives particular resonance to both artists’ subjects, allowing a ceramic piece of food or an assembled house to interrupt—and enrich—the expectations of a lived-in space.

VISIT

SPLIT LEVEL 2026
October 1–3, 2026

Rimadesio
102 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016

VIP & Press Preview: Thursday, October 1, 3–6 PM
Public Hours: Thursday, October 1, 6–8 PM
Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3, 12–6 PM