FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: Saturday, June 6, 1-4 pm
Gross McCleaf Gallery, 123 Leverington Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19127
June 5 – July 11, 2026
Gross McCleaf Gallery is proud to present Shifting, a solo exhibition of new mixed media works by Mickayel Thurin. Through painting, text, color, and collaged materials, Thurin creates layered compositions that examine the ongoing processes of personal evolution. Drawing from shadow work, healing practices, and lived experience, Thurin’s paintings function as both self-portraits and records of transition, tracing the shifting perspectives that accompany growth and change.
Throughout Shifting, diverse materials and symbols are placed in conversation with self-portraiture, challenging familiar ways of seeing and understanding ourselves and others. By bringing together varied visual languages, Thurin’s work reflects the complexity of our inner worlds, and further what becomes possible when we move beyond fixed, inherited narratives of self and perceptions. She notes, “My paintings use mismatched material to represent these drastically different frequencies of energy, perspective, and potential.” Allowing distinct materials, symbols, and perspectives to coexist within the same visual spaces creates opportunities for new perspectives and self-examination to take place.
For Thurin, self-portraiture serves as a means of examining the ever-shifting nature of identity. “All the paintings are self-portraits, and with some I am more successful at being myself than others,” Thurin explains. Figures mirror, comfort, question, and recognize one another, creating visual conversations between the many versions of ourselves that coexist: the person we were, the person we are becoming, and the one looking back at both with greater understanding. Rooted in the practice of shadow work, the exhibition reflects a personal shift toward acknowledging rather than rejecting the parts of ourselves that often remain hidden. For Thurin, these unseen aspects do not disappear when ignored, but continue to shape our viewpoints, relationships, and patterns of behavior. Through self-portraiture, she examines the possibility of extending compassion inward and embracing the complexity of the self in its entirety.
In combining paint and found materials, Thurin creates works that remain open, layered, and in motion. Recurring figures and fragments function as visual motifs through which contradiction and transformation can coexist. Fear sits alongside courage, uncertainty alongside growth, and self-protection alongside visibility and vulnerability. Rather than resolving these tensions, Shifting embraces them as essential parts of the self. Through this body of work, Thurin invites viewers to reconsider the stories they tell themselves about who they are and the possibilities that may ensue.
Mickayel Thurin is a Haitian American artist whose work explores themes of emotion, spirituality, and the human experience through mixed media. She grew up in the Mid-Atlantic region and earned a BFA and a four-year certificate through the joint program at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, later completing her Master’s at Penn State. Thurin was the founder of Seen Heard Connected, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness and providing financial assistance to marginalized communities. She was an artist-in-residence at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and has exhibited work at the Philadelphia International Airport, The Delaware Contemporary, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Woodmere Art Museum, the Saginaw Art Museum, and many local galleries. Thurin and her work have been featured in several publications, on film and TV (WHYY’s Infinite Art Hunt). She has also partnered with Mural Arts, the PMA, the Philadelphia Magic Gardens, DVAA and others to conduct art workshops with the public. She currently has work up at the Rockwood Museum and Park’s We the People, Woodmere’s 83rd Annual, and will have an upcoming solo show, Care, Kin, Perspective, at the Philadelphia Magic Garden later this year. Thurin lives and works in Philadelphia with her husband, fellow artist Benjamin Passione, and their two sons, Maurice and Maximo. She is represented by Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia.
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New Works On View
Gross McCleaf Gallery is delighted to welcome Timothy Carr to our roster of represented artists.
Part vessel, part sculpture, part illustrated folklore, Timothy Carr’s ceramic works bring together traditional pottery techniques with contemporary visual culture. A Philadelphia-based ceramic artist, Carr combines wheel-thrown and hand-built forms with painting, illustration, and narrative imagery, creating works that blur the line between functional object and contemporary sculpture.
“From the earliest form of human writing on cuneiform tablets, to the porcelain dental fillings in our teeth, to the tile lining on the exterior of rocket-ships that blast off into space, ceramics not only serve a function but also captures a story.” - Timothy Carr
Ancient forms become surfaces for graffiti, pop culture, personal narrative, and references drawn from his Swiss-Canadian upbringing, family history, and life in Philadelphia. His studies in Philadelphia, alongside residencies in Jingdezhen, China and Seto, Japan, have enriched his understanding of global ceramic traditions and the transmission of craft knowledge. These cross-cultural experiences inform a practice that bridges functionality, storytelling, and conceptual exploration.
Carr earned his BFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 2024 and his MFA from the University of Delaware in 2026.