Shape Collectors: Dana Hemenway, Rachel Kaye, and Megan Reed · Spring 2026
Opening Reception
April 11, 2026 | 4–8PM
On View
Through June 7, 2026
Compound YV is pleased to present ‘Shape Collectors,’ opening April 11, 2026, and on view through June 7, with a reception on the evening of April 11 from 4 to 8 pm. Experimental composer and improviser Matt Robidoux will perform their corn synth (a modular system that interprets physical input from two “ears of corn” sculptures cast in aluminum) in Compound’s backyard during the event.
The Shape Collectors are Dana Hemenway, Rachel Kaye, and Megan Reed — three California artists who seek to build transformational combinations of shapes and colors within their individual practices. In preparation for this shared show, the three have enjoyed uncovering similarities related to their processes — the surprise color can bring, curiosity about ordinary shapes’ rhythms, and a shared appreciation of nature. Exploration is a common theme among them, whether borrowing something about the spirituality of sculpture from global cultures or the rich green from a lush tropical paradise. Each artist finds sketching to be an important tool, but its utility varies in terms of timing; one sketches before in miniature, one after, and one iteratively throughout the creative process.
Visiting from the Bay Area, Rachel Kaye's intricate works on paper and paintings are characterized by vibrant hues and organic forms and textures, while Dana Hemenway’s work stems from traditionally fiber-based crafts, resulting in wholly modern lamps, totems, garments, and other arrangements. Megan Reed is based in Los Angeles, generating vibrantly colored two- and three-dimensional forms from individual elements and recycled waste from past projects.
What is apparent when encountering works by these artists, now meeting in a room together for the first time, is not that the Shape Collectors are saying the same thing, but that they speak the same language. They share a vocabulary of stacked, overlapping, continuous, repetitive, and puzzled-together shapes. Shapes hewn from pencil markings, brush strokes, clay, and styrofoam; from meticulous planning and happenstance; from the power of experiencing and imagining and of forging through rounds of trial and error. They are gathered from the world, in many passing instances, from places beyond themselves.
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