Wreck Room brings together Craig Auge, Devin Goebel, and Kylie McConnell, whose operational methods and processes collide to evoke nostalgia, pop culture, and self-discovery. Inspired by Midwest basements, punk bars, and dead mall aesthetics, the show creates a dream-like environment of thrifted visual poems and future relics. The artists layer harmony and discord, humor and playfulness tinged with trepidation. The mundane is elevated and the poignant is deconstructed. Wreck Room is the stage of our perpetual coming-of-age in an age of uncertainty.

Growing up in an environment that stifled creativity and discouraged independence, I struggled with self-doubt and trauma from a legalistic father and a religious cult that shaped my formative years. My art now explores themes of suffering and healing, as I navigate the long-term effects of abuse and rejection. Creating art as therapy has helped me process much of the pain, acknowledging that the void my father has left will never be filled by anything or anyone.  This journey has taught me the value of living authentically, confronting fears, and embracing discomfort. As I expand into new mediums like fiber, sculpting, and repurposing materials, I’m determined to master skills once deemed outside my reach, proving to myself that I can shape my future on my own terms.

In Earned? Trust? You?? Aight. Kevin Hopkins and Cole Vacek collaborate to explore the nuances of memory’s degradation, the celebration of nostalgia, and the vulnerability of trust through painting, sculpture, and installation.

In Kevin's work, he reflects on a childhood concept he and his brothers called Dreaming—a shared moment when they would choose characters from their favorite shows, particularly Shonen anime, blend those personas with their own, and play-fight within the imagined worlds they collectively built and negotiated in a shared daydream. Through this recollection of childhood imagination, Hopkins also examines the eventual demise of the Dreaming practice as he and his siblings grappled with the expectations of masculinity and responsibility imposed on them within the context of a Lowcountry Black experience.

Cole's work delves into the processes of remembering, recalling, retaining, and clutching at memories, even as we inevitably lose the complete pages of our once-vivid stories. He suggests, however, that the unintentional loss of memory doesn't signify its total absence. Instead, memories become fragmented—charred, altered monuments we cling to—still capable of participating in acts of exchange.

Together, Kevin and Cole present vulnerable moments for viewers to contemplate, offering artifacts and dreams to explore and a catalyst for personal recollection. They ask themselves: What is worth preserving? What are the rules? How do I grow up? How do I stay young? How do I fulfill myself? How do I survive? And how do I help you do the same? 

Self-portraits As The Strings Tying Us Together is a collaboration between Caroline Honas, Hùng Lê, and Bernadette Negrete that foregrounds the artists’ interest in process-driven work. Each piece displayed began as a substrate in one of the artists' studios, encountered various manipulations, and was passed to another for completion—or was made by one but inspired by the others. This approach gave a deeper understanding of the methodology and aesthetics defining

Femininity is a balance of contrasts, delicate yet strong. Our work honors memories through decoration, exploring growth, decay, preservation, and loss, while reflecting the joy and grief of the feminine experience.

Myla transforms textiles into rigid ceramics, creating tension between softness and strength. Chloe uses soft materials and bold details, taking textiles beyond their domestic roots.

Both explore the contrast between flexible and rigid materials, challenging how we view their purpose.

Chloe’s glass swords and Myla’s ceramic tiles show fragility and strength. Together, their work highlights femininity’s complexities.

Crafted with delicate hand dyed textiles and mixed media, Birthday Suits delve into the intricate facets of an identity that I did not consciously choose and that culture has appropriated. These soft sculptures explore the physical, social, and cultural markers that shape who I am, from my gender, the color of my skin & hair, to the circumstances of my birth. Having never met or seen a photo of a single human who shares my genealogical traits (as I’m adopted), western ideals of gender, beauty & pornography are the closest thing I have to a concept of ancestry & identity. Using only the forms of spheres and cones, these uninhabited vessels emulate aspects of my phenotypes that western ideals have captured. Through this simulacrum, I echo back real parts of me, that change with the season and through time, and that I often find simulated in salons, the makeup counter and costume & toy aisles.