The Only Way Out Is Through
October 4 2025 - January 4 2026
Curated by Nick Lawrence
Readymade Gallery is proud to present The Only Way Out Is Through, a dynamic group show featuring 25 past and
present participants of the DNA Summer Artist Residency, and invited guests.
The Only Way Out Is Through is the final installment of a trilogy of two-month exhibitions at Readymade this season,
examining how artists (and humans) cope with adversity head on: through tenacity, style and grace - and in some
cases - transcendence. The show also highlights several artists from the surf and skateboard community of the
Cape and beyond, and demonstrates how the creators break on through to the other side, to quote The Doors.
The centerpiece of the show is an epic two-panel painting displaying the legendary Montauk surfer Hawaiian Ed by
Gregory de la Haba, alongside two foam and fiberglass surfboards carved by Mr. La Haba. The Ditch Plains regular
Hawaiian Ed is depicted exploding out of a wave surrounded by his beautiful entourage - a triumphant acid fantasy
manifested by La Haba in real time. La Haba divides his time between painting studios in Montauk, NY and Malba,
Queens, as well as being a longtime arts writer, photographer and surfer.
On a more meditative note, the exhibit also features a series of etchings by the renowned Boston printmaker H. Peik
Larsen, of his wife and fellow artist Judith Larsen learning to walk during rehab, after suffering a severe head injury
from a bike accident. Like an Edward Muybridge stop frame photo, the poignancy of the simple trajectory of this
physical action, which most of us take for granted, is amplified by Larsen's deft and practiced drawing hand.
Wellfleetian Abraham Storer contributes four stunning small paintings depicting views through windows, porches,
trees, hands, feet and other stenciled body part "reveals". Storer uses a muted and subtle palette, reminiscent of
Morandi, which underscores his deeper aesthetic and philosophical intentions, describing negative space, nostalgia
and loneliness.
Former longtime Truro resident Jim Peters' cinematic, constructed cutaways aptly portray the concept of finding a
way out by going through - in this case literally through the picture frame - for lovers and artists in beach shacks,
studio nooks and crannies.
Also included is a brilliantly hand painted skateboard by local artist, teacher, musician and skater Jack Turnbull
featuring a resonant Indian inspired mandala.
Boyang Hou offers several versions of painted flags composed of lighters - harkening back to Jasper Johns'
idealized, ironic patriotism through repetition, or a reference to concert goers holding up lighters in a crowd quest of
adulation and euphoria.
Martin Smick has two abstracts in a pointillist vein of dolphins cavorting in the ethereal deep depths, breaking free of
all constraint.
Also included is an intricate photocollage of fishing boats on the Cape by legendary skateboarder and artist Zered
Bassett.
Sam Colt has included a dazzling "time lapse" oil on panel depiction of night lights in a luminous Times Square or
Brooklyn Bridge-type scene.
Other artists in TOWOIT include: Douglas Degges, Michael Holden, Peter Hutchinson, Andy Jacobs, Judith Larsen,
Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Riad Miah, Sara Moran, Lance Mountain, Caleb Oakland, Kai Potter, Archie Rand, Zella Swain, Sonya Woodman.
At the end of the day, the exhibition demonstrates the various ways artists conquer their fears - both real and
imagined - and emerge from the other end a better human. Proving the old adage Whatever doesn't kill us makes us
stronger.
Please join us this Saturday 6 - 9pm for an artists' gathering at Readymade Gallery, 11 Cove Road in Orleans, and
the following Saturday Oct 11th 6 - 9pm for a public celebration accompanied by live music, libations and appetizers.