Main Projects is pleased to present Held in Place, a group exhibition bringing together six artists whose practices investigate the forces and structures through which materials acquire form. Featuring Tara Donovan, Eva LeWitt, Sam Moyer, Davina Semo, Rosalind Tallmadge, and Rachel Mica Weiss, the exhibition considers how accumulation, tension, gravity, and suspension shape not only an object's construction, but also the space it occupies and the ways it is perceived.
At the heart of Held in Place is a paradox: the forces that constrain materials are often those that make transformation possible. Individual elements gather into complex structures, substantial materials appear weightless, and fixed objects produce effects that extend beyond their physical boundaries. Rather than concealing the mechanisms of construction, these artists make them central to the work, revealing how form emerges through relationships between materials, their supports, and the surrounding space.
Central to this investigation is Tara Donovan's monumental Drawing (Pins) (2024), composed of thousands of nickel-plated steel pins. Extending Donovan's longstanding exploration of accumulation and aggregation, the work transforms identical, utilitarian objects into a shimmering field that shifts between drawing, painting, and sculpture. Individual pins become nearly indistinguishable within the larger composition, producing optical effects that seem at odds with their rigidity. The work suggests how relationships between individual parts can generate qualities that belong to none of them alone.
Rachel Mica Weiss and Eva LeWitt similarly explore how repetition and physical constraints give rise to spatial forms. In Weiss's Aperture III (2026), threads stretched across a maple frame according to mathematical permutations accumulate into a surface that appears woven, though its strands never interlock. The resulting screen simultaneously divides and reveals the space beyond it. LeWitt's Blue Hemisphere (2024), composed of silicone and metal beads, introduces softness and irregularity into a geometric structure. Suspended in space, the sculpture allows gravity to participate in its organization, balancing formal precision with an expressive pliability.
For Sam Moyer and Rosalind Tallmadge, the relationship between material and support is complicated by the physical properties of stone. Moyer's paintings incorporate marble inlaid into painted plaster, holding fragments of geological material within compositions that appear to suspend their considerable weight. Tallmadge's Geode (2026), made from mirrored mica on silk organza, brings together mineral substance and delicate textile support. Through material transformation, the earthbound origins of mica give way to a luminous surface suggesting an enigmatic interior depth. In both practices, the image is inseparable from the physical conditions that sustain it.
The exhibition's structures of support and restraint acquire a bodily dimension in Weiss's Protector IV (Veil) (2024). Hand-carved alabaster links form a suspended, chainmail-like covering whose garment-like silhouette evokes an absent body. Its apparent flexibility belies the weight of stone, while its protective associations introduce an ambiguity between shelter and confinement. What shields the body might also restrict it.
Davina Semo's cast bronze bells, Heartbeat (2025) and Earthen (2025), extend these concerns into sound. Suspended by ropes and hardware, the sculptures contain the potential for resonance within their substantial forms. When rung, their vibrations travel outward, activating the surrounding architecture and registering in the bodies of those nearby. The solidity of bronze gives rise to something immaterial and transient, making space itself a participant in the work.
Held in Place proposes that structure is neither simply restrictive nor liberating, but establishes the conditions through which form and experience become possible. Across the exhibition, accumulation creates complexity, restraint enables expression, and systems of support become sources of transformation. What appears fixed remains, in other ways, continually in motion.
