July 3 - August 1, 2025

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10, 4-6 PM

Artist Talk: Sunday, July 13, 4:40 PM

440 Gallery is proud to present the 2025 Summer Theme Exhibition, Sacred Space, juried by Ramona Candy. Candy expands the notion of space—not just as location, but as presence—inviting us to consider how we inhabit the places that make us whole. Through a range of approaches—abstraction, implied realism, and sculptural gestures—25 artists have been selected from a national open call exploring how to define "sacred space” and how it defines us.

Artists selected for the show:

Laurey Bennett-Levy, Stacey Billups, Todd Carroll, Phillip DeSantis, Katharine Dufault, Orla Dunstan, Cynthia Egle-Grant, Debra Friedkin, Susan Greenstein, Norma Greenwood, Bernard Hallstein, Kelly Han, Doi Kim, Melissa Kraft, Daniel Kummer, Cecil Lee, Jess Levey, Emma Moore, Rachel O’Grady, Hiroko Ohno, Jaime Patino-Calvo, Gabriel Pilar Pala, Cynthia Ruse, Jini Tanenhaus, and Therese Urban

Candy writes about her selection process:

“Choosing work for this exhibition was more difficult than I imagined. Allowing myself to be in ‘sacred space,’ however, I could do no less than embrace and revel in the task of reviewing the wide range of submissions. The variety of interpretations manifested many unique explorations of space, considered sacred. Of course, actual gallery ‘space’ where works will hang, limits the number of pieces chosen, making final picks even more challenging

Space is all around us, above us, below us, within us, vast or confining. How we, as humans—and more specifically as artists—perceive it, or choose to interpret it, is what makes it personal, confusing, enlightening—sacred. The artists whose works were chosen best translated ‘sacred space’ to reveal emotion, comfort, safety, expression, meditation, travel, self-care, appreciation, mind play, movement, breath, relationship between colors and shapes, and actual landscapes and location.

It is my hope, especially after reviewing all the work submitted, that the artists in this exhibition inspire us to discover, recognize, and embrace our own unique sacred spaces.”

Ramona Candy is an artist, curator, occasional blogger, and (once a dancer always) a dancer. She is a culture bearer who draws inspiration from her Caribbean heritage; growing up in Brooklyn; a dance career and Sankofa (“to go back and retrieve”). Currently she is the Director of the Council for the Arts at St. Joseph’s University–Brooklyn campus, where she curates arts programming, connecting the University community and surrounding neighborhood with professional visual and performing artists. Her own work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the tristate area and in Timor-Leste as part of the US Department of State’s Art in Embassies. She has presented art-making workshops for Safe Horizons, Brooklyn Arts Council (SU-CASA), and several other organizations. Candy is a founding member of Clark Center NYC, a dance legacy project.