Opening Reception: Saturday, August 9, 5–8 PM

August 9–Ocotber 25, 2025

CATHERINE AND ROBERT PALMER GALLERY

HELENA WESTRA: Lying Fallow

Lying Fallow is a golden meadow brought indoors and an invitation to rest. In this installation of hand-gathered California grasses, artist Helena Westra creates a space shaped by slowness, reflection, and return. The title comes from the agricultural term “lying fallow,” used when a field is left unplanted for a season so the soil can restore its strength. For Westra, this idea becomes a metaphor for creative and personal renewal. 

Westra's installation draws from her own search for balance in a world that constantly demands effort and productivity. Elevated here instead is her deep reverence for the land, a connection between the cycles of her own body and the seasons, and the quiet, in-between moments we often overlook. This exhibition straddles late summer into fall, inviting visitors into a space that feels both grounded and dreamlike, where time slows down and the border between the external world and the inner self begins to blur. 

This is a show about pausing. About listening. About what can only grow after a period of stillness. Lying Fallow offers a soft-landing place for memory, for imagination, and for whatever may come next.