Opening reception: March 4, 2026
Location: 195 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
Hours: Monday – Friday, 10 am – 6 pm, Saturday 12-5 pm & Sunday by appointment
Contact: caroline@voltzclarke.com | 917.292.6921
Press Release
Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present Letting Go, Holding Tight!, a solo exhibition, by Lucy Soni.
How do you know when to let go of something or whether to hold it tight? Are we stronger together or do we splinter off and go it alone? What happens to a single scribble on a single canvas when it is massed with other canvases?
Lucy Soni reflects on the questions that confront artists when creating a solo exhibition. She explains that artists tend to think of the work as a body. It becomes less about the individual paintings and more about how they will fill the space collectively and interact with each other. Questions arise such as, will the color and forms complement or compete? Should the artist make dramatic or subtle changes between the canvases? Soni expresses how one thinks in terms of quantity while keeping a close eye on quality. The artist explores pushing the medium and subject matter in new ways whilst retaining the essence of one’s preoccupations.
In Letting Go, Holding Tight!, Soni continues to explore themes of chaos and control, color, light, and a constant state of flux through her signature use of flat color, glazes, and converging lines. Within the confines of her solo exhibitions, the London based painter expresses that she has “effectively had an element of control.” For Letting Go, Holding Tight!, her departure has been to consider letting go of the control of individual works, thinking about how artworks exist autonomously yet can function collectively as a body of work. How does the meaning and dynamics of an individual artwork shift when it is encountered within a pairing or larger groupings? What is it to hold tight to one painting or to let it join a group? Soni’s focus for this recent exhibition has shifted from individual large paintings to smaller scale multiples that can be grouped to create larger works or exhibited alone. The presentation of the artworks in the gallery setting will be just one of their potential configurations. The artist ponders if the paintings will stay in the formation she has presented or if the groupings will be disbanded. How will this change the content and reading of the works? In Letting Go, Holding Tight! Soni embraces the not knowing. She exclaims “I relinquish control!”
Originally from Kent, England, Lucy Soni currently lives and works in London. She graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in Painting from Chelsea College of Art. Soni has exhibited in New York, Florida, London and Hong Kong.