Where Spring Begins to Speak  | Works From Our Collection (Part 2)

La Vaughn Belle - Brandon J. Donahue-Shipp - Kiki Gaffney - Judy Gelles - Raymond Saá

APRIL 17 - JUNE 13, 2026

Opening Reception: Friday, April 17 | 6 – 8 pm

Pentimenti is proud to announce its forthcoming exhibition, Where Spring Begins to Speak: Works From Our Collection (Part 2), on view from April 17 through June 13, 2026. This second installment of Works From Our Collection highlights five additional artists who have been central  to our programming.

In Where Spring Begins to Speak, each artist reflects on the shifting, present rhythms of nature and current time. In her collage series Storm, La Vaughn Belle explores the aesthetic possibilities of land, sea, and weather, imagining new geographies and ways of understanding space, self, and the turbulent histories that have shaped the Caribbean. Through cuts and burns in the paper, gestures central to her practice, she evokes the intertwined forces of violence and repair that continue to shape the Caribbean today.

On view are two works by Brandon J. Donahue-Shipp. He reimagines the familiar basketball as a mandala form, emerging from the wall like a flower and imbuing an everyday object with organic vitality and poetic resonance. Alongside it, a sculpture created from AstroTurf introduces a lush, springlike presence that reflects on the substitution of nature, emphasizing community engagement, sports, and spirituality.

Kiki Gaffney’s work reflects the cyclical rhythms of nature, balancing slow, meditative processes with the unpredictable forces of changing seasons, sun, and wind. Her practice explores how natural “architectures”, patterns that emerge without imposed order, can inform and shape the structures of human life.

Spring, for many of us, embodies the vitality of youth within the cycle of life. As we grow up, we carry the voices of our parents, their advice, guidance, warnings, and critiques echoing in our minds. The work on view draws from the words of Judy Gelles’s mother. Gelles explores the weight and resonance of language, revealing how it shapes her understanding of care and responsibility as she grows older.

Raymond Saá is a Cuban-American artist whose abstract, process-driven work deconstructs and reconstructs natural elements, creating motifs that reflect his Cuban heritage and link organic forms with architectural structures. The two works on view evoke the sensation of a first breath of spring, crisp, invigorating, and full of promise.

Together, these works create a dynamic conversation about transition and awakening, inviting viewers to reflect on the subtle and profound moments of change that so often accompany the arrival of spring.

For all inquiries, please contact us at mail@pentimenti.com or +1 215 625-9990.

ADDITIONAL EVENTS | First Friday - Gallery Walk: Friday, June 5, 5 to 8 pm.

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10 am – 5 pm; Saturday, 12 – 5 pm or by appointment.

LA VAUGHN BELLE holds an MFA from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba, and both an MA and BA from Columbia University in New York. She has exhibited her work in various museums and institutions, including the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York; Clark Atlanta University Art Museum in Atlanta; the African American Museum in Philadelphia; Museo del Barrio in New York; Casa de las Americas in Havana; the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco; the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen; Kunsthal Charlottenborg in Copenhagen; and the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, among others.

Her work is included in the collections of the National Photography Museum in Copenhagen; Vestsjælland Museum in Denmark; the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, Germany; the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 2019 and the Danish Arts Council Project Distinction Award in 2023

CLICK HERE TO GO TO LA VAUGHN BELLE PAGE

BRANDON J. DONAHUE-SHIPP received his BFA from Tennessee State University and his MFA from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis, MD; Frist Museum, Nashville, TN; 13th Havana Biennial, Matanzas, Cuba; South Kentucky Performing Arts Center, Bowling Green, KY; Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; McKenna Museum, New Orleans, LA; Athica Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens, GA; and many others. He is the recipient of the MSAC Public Art Across Maryland Planning Grant; Tanne Foundation Award, alongside numerous other awards and grants. His work resides in numerous permanent collections including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Metro Arts Nashville, Nashville, TN; Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis, MD; Arrowmont School of Craft, Gatlinburg, TN; Cordish Collection, Hanover, MD; and more. 

Donahue-Shipp has been included in the book publication, “Common Practice: Basketball and Contemporary Art” by Carlos Rolon. 
This publication from Skira Editore covers more than a century of artwork from over two hundred leading artists—including Nina Chanel Abney, Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Salvador Dalí, Elaine de Kooning, David Hammons, Barkley Hendricks, Titus Kaphar, Jacob Lawrence, Roy Lichtenstein, Sharon Lockhart, Robert Longo, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Faith Ringgold, Lorna Simpson, Andy Warhol, Ai Weiwei, and Wendy White.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO BRANDON J. DONAHUE-SHIPP

KIKI GAFFNEY received her BA from Loyola College, Baltimore, and her MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She has exhibited with Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Christys Art Center, Sag Harbor, NY; Krasdale Gallery, New York, NY; Susan Maasch Fine Art, Portland, ME. She is a five-time recipient of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts grants and recent past residencies: Land Line Artist Residency, Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, CO, and Montello Foundation Artist in Residence, Montello, NV. Her work is in the collection of Denver Botanic Gardens, Microsoft, Canon USA Inc., Sonoma State University, and Capital One.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO KIKI GAFFNEY

JUDY GELLES received her MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Gelles has exhibited her work most notably at the National Portrait Gallery, London, UK; Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, Sunderland, UK; Arts Club of Washington, Washington, DC; Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea; Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, CA; Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, Trenton, NJ; Santa Fe University of Art and Design, Santa Fe, NM; Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA; Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; Granary Arts Center, Ephraim, UT; Berlin Foto Biennale, Berlin, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Photo Center NW, Seattle, WA; Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA; and more. She has been awarded the CENTER Award, Second Prize “Curator’s Choice” (2016); CFEVA Alumni Travel Grant (2016); First Prize, Prix de la Photographie Paris (2013); Lomax Family Foundation Grant (2012); among others. Her work is in the collection of RISD Museum, Providence, RI; The Museum of Modern Art in New York and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Harvard University Fine Arts Library, Cambridge, MA; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; among many others.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO JUDY GELLES

RAYMOND SAÁ received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and his MFA from the Parsons School of Design. He exhibited at Untitled Art Miami Beach; White Columns, New York, NY; Queens Museum, Bulova Center, Queens, NY; Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ; Chautauqua Visual Arts Gallery, Chautauqua, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, CA; Islip Museum, Islip, NY; Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ; and more. 

His work is included in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; New Orleans Museum of Art, LA; Queens Museum of Art, NY; NYC Public Art for Public Schools, NY; among others. In 2023, the Philadelphia Museum of Art commissioned Saá, along with four other artists, to create artwork inspired by the exhibition “Matisse in the 1930s” taking place at the museum. 

Saá’s awards and residencies include the Joan Mitchell Center Artist-in-Residence Program, New Orleans, LA; the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, NY; the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, New York, NY; and the Public Art for Public Schools commission for PS 357X, New York, NY.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO RAYMOND SAÁ