Press Release - Imaginal Disc by Soleé Darrell
Soleé Darrell - Title
Dye on silk velvet. 50 x 34 inches. 2024.
pt.2:
Imaginal Disc
a solo exhibition by
Soleé Darrell
Opening Reception
June 7th at 6pm
On view until
July 19, 2025
pt.2 Gallery
1523b Webster St.
Oakland, CA 94612
pt. 2 Gallery is proud to present Soleé Darrell: Imaginal Disc, the artist’s latest body of work exploring transformation, spiritual upheaval, and the complexity of becoming. Charged with energy and guided by intuition, these new works embrace uncertainty, offering a reflection on change that is neither linear nor complete. Instead, they hold space for contradiction—for the messiness of growth and the coexistence of multiple truths.
In several works, pigment pools and disperses across mirrored compositions, creating rhythmic, symmetrical forms that ripple with energy and repetition. These velvet pieces carry the sensation of suspended transformation—shapes that seem to expand, echo, or unfold—holding the tension of something on the verge of forming, but not yet defined. Elsewhere, shadowy figures begin to emerge: spirits, ghosts, or demons surfacing and receding in the pigment. Their presence feels conjured but incomplete, hinting at unseen forces at work or selves still becoming.
Darrell expands her material language through soft sculptures made from sheer organza, suspended from walls and corners. These works are translucent and bodily—reminiscent of ectoplasm, a substance associated with spiritual manifestations. Here, ectoplasm becomes a metaphor for transition: something ephemeral and ungraspable, caught between the physical and the energetic.
Soleé Darrell - Title
Dye on silk velvet. 46 x 32 inches. 2024.
Threaded through the exhibition is a deeper metaphor drawn from metamorphosis. The title Imaginal Disc references the biological structure inside a caterpillar that holds the blueprint for the future butterfly—cells that will become wings, antennae, or legs, embedded in a body that has not yet transformed. Darrell’s works dwell in this suspended state: the pre-wing moment, where identity is held in potential, where the future self is already present but not yet fully formed.
Known for her bold, vibrant palette, Darrell pushes into new territory with murky greens, muddy browns, and stormy grays—tones she once avoided. These “ugly” colors mark a deliberate embrace of discomfort and fear, expanding her visual and emotional range. The result is a body of work that holds tension, makes space for contradiction, and resists resolution.
Soleé Darrell was born in Bermuda, and lives and works in Berkeley, California. She has exhibited across California, Bermuda, and Tokyo, with recent solo and group exhibitions at the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Pit, pt. 2 Gallery, Legion Projects, Soft Times Gallery, Brass and Reiner, and Almost Perfect. Her work was recently included in the 2024 Bermuda Biennial at the Bermuda National Gallery. She was selected for the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Emerging Artist Program in 2023.