Artists explore how animals help humans process grief
Nine emerging artists explore how depicting animals helps humans process trauma and understand themselves in “Pet Shop,” a group exhibition at Harsh Collective revealing how creatures—both real and imagined—serve as mirrors for our own emotional landscapes. Featuring work by Audrey Bialke, Jennifer Blaine, Mo Gordon, Ada Louise Hamilton, Alice Johnson, Bird Nord, Jenna Rothstein, Anaïs De Los Santos, and Darcy Whent, the exhibition is on view at 606 Dean St in Brooklyn from July 18th to August 9th, 2025, with an opening reception on July 17th from 6 to 8 pm. The presentation features over 35 works in various mediums, each depicting animals.
The artists in “Pet Shop” don’t simply depict animals, they use them as emotional proxies to explore human experiences. The often anthropomorphised or imaginary creatures depicted in the exhibition celebrate our instinctive curiosity of the animal kingdom—our inclination to learn about, care for, classify, and fantasize about them. The featured artists do not just depict animals, but the interaction of animals and humans, whether through decorative, architectural, or humanized details. Each piece reflects the artist’s journey toward understanding themselves through the creatures that inhabit their world.
“The artists in ‘Pet Shop’ remind us of our ability to extend empathy to animals in the hope that we can extend the same to ourselves and others,” Etta Harshaw, founder of Harsh Collective, said. “They remind us of the goodness we should nurture at a time when so many seem to be motivated by greed.”
About Audrey Bialke
Audrey Bialke (b. 1991, New York, US) is a painter whose works depict mythical animals, man-made objects, vegetation, and other elements within a pictorial format inspired by both illuminated manuscripts and the long tradition of feminine folk decoration. Creatures and objects are plucked from time and form relationships within the borders, referencing old mythologies and creating them anew.
Narratives such as navigating conflict in interpersonal relationships and pervasive disconnect from the land exist alongside a hopeful vision for a more sustainable, kind, and beautiful world. While recognizing the necessity for evolving context, the imagery is collected from the life stuff of ages passed and imbued with reverence for the long traditions of creators and the mystical act of making.
About Jennifer Blaine
Jennifer Blaine (b. 1991, South Carolina, US) is an artist currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She is drawn to the notion of the obsolete, the mass produced and the ephemeral; how our possessions influence our perception of past experiences. She is most interested in what we accumulate and how our act to preserve and archive reflects on notions of sentimentality and the desire to remember.
She received her MFA from Hunter College in 2024. She has also studied extensively in the UK, completing the Drawing Intensive at the Royal Drawing School in London, England in 2021 and attending the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland in the Fall of 2023. In 2023 she held a solo exhibition at the New Glasgow Society Gallery in Scotland, and has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and Europe.
About Mo Gordon
Mo Gordon (b. 1992, Germany) is a self-taught artist focused on the emotional landscape. Based in Portland, OR, working primarily with graphite and handmade paper, their work explores sentient spaces, hostile architecture, and anthropomorphized objects. In sequential works or standalone pieces, characters often have four walls.
About Ada Louise Hamilton
Ada Louise Hamilton (b. 2003, California, US) is a ceramicist-slash-sculptor living and working in Chicago, IL. They graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with distinction in 2025.
Ada corrals imagery and form from post-gold-rush Americana discards into slight ceramic sculptures, a language of sentimental twee is re-appropriated to reconstruct their narratives about our past-slash-present-slash-future. They are always looking backwards and walking forwards.
About Alice Johnson
Alice Johnson (b. 1994, United Kingdom) is a British ceramicist based in London, whose work is rooted in joy, humour, and a deep sense of nostalgia. Through playful forms, bold colour palettes, and expressive shapes, she creates pieces that tell stories, spark memories, and aim to bring smiles to those who encounter them. At the heart of her practice is Pottery Pets, a unique project where Alice handcrafts bespoke ceramic sculptures of people’s beloved animals. Each piece captures the character and spirit of the pet in a whimsical yet deeply personal way, transforming their presence into a lasting, tangible memory.
About Bird Nord
Bird Nord (b. 2004, Arizona, US) is a ceramicist depicting their complicated, raw, romantic, and visceral world view inspired by their childhood growing up on a farm, slaughtering, mourning, aiming, and watching. Nord memorializes subjects of their memories with coils of clay and gentle patterns, putting them to rest by giving them space in the physical world again.
About Jenna Rothstein
Jenna Rothstein (b. 1993, Detroit, MI) is largely concerned with the decorative and sentimental. Her work contains its own dense language rooted in western ideas of normative behavior, exploring images of failure, spectacle, performance, soft power and tragic comedy.
About Anaïs De Los Santos
Anais De Los Santos (b.1996, New Jersey) received her BFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2019. Working mainly in ceramic sculpture, she utilizes her background in drawing and film to transform ceramic surfaces. She has worked in studios between the Bay Area, Philadelphia and New York City, including The Clay Studio, Black Hound Clay, and BKLYN Clay. Centering a DIY approach to her practice since undergrad, Anais prefers to collaborate with young Artists in her community, including Bay Area Comix Collective, Freak Comix, Philadelphia Riso Press PET Riso, and the Brooklyn based restaurant Dinner Party.
She also spends most summers in Western Massachusetts teaching art at Odyssey Teen Camp, a sleep away camp for queer teens. Anais is currently based in Brooklyn.
About Darcy Whent
Darcy Whent (b. 2002, Wales) is a painter exploring the themes and ideologies that come with the idea of motherhood, in particular the dysfunctional responsibilities that we anticipate of the mother. Through the use of personal inquiry and autofiction, Whent turns to painting and drawing within her practice. Throughout her work, there are dialogues with recurring protagonists and motifs.
Using found imagery along with personal archives, she constructs and forms narratives, revisiting the grief from the perspective of the present through the manipulation of paint. Whent challenges the notion of memory and truth, recreating a sort of universal form of childhood to develop an understanding of consequence, social barriers, and the possibility of inherited behaviors.
About Harsh Collective
Harsh Collective is an artist-first gallery that amplifies emerging contemporary artists’ voices and offers a bespoke platform where collectors, artists, and guests are all welcome. Harsh Collective brings the artist’s story to the forefront of the art world, offering a creative space driven by community. www.harshcollective.com
By Chadd Scott