Support Structures | Danielle Fretwell, Gianni Politi, Sarah Zapata

April 11 – May 3, 2025

Support Structures is an exhibition of works by Danielle Fretwell, Gianni Politi, and Sarah Zapata that investigates the materials and forces — both seen and unseen — that undergird contemporary art. For each of these artists, the process of producing their work is as important as the final result, and their labor-intensive practices of layering, peeling back, and weaving together shape the final works.

Danielle Fretwell uses traditional techniques and media to create highly detailed still lives that recall the Flemish and Baroque masters, replete with silver tableware and ripe fruit. However, Fretwell pushes these scenes to limits of legibility, either by painting a veil over the surface of the work or rendering it as darkly as possible. Her seductive work questions the possibility of clear interpretation or singular truth in today’s media culture.

Gianni Politi’s dynamic, multimedia practice considers the role of the contemporary painter, grounded in the art historical tradition of his home in Rome, Italy. The abstract works on view in this exhibition begin as huge sheets of canvas on the floor of his studio, which Politi covers in paint that is poured, splattered, and dripped onto the surface, recalling the floor of any well-used artist’s studio. These canvases are then cut into fragments and collaged onto colorful, painted backgrounds to produce improvisatory, layered works that examine the process of artmaking itself.

Sarah Zapata’s textile sculptures reflect her intersecting identities as a queer woman of Peruvian heritage, raised in Evangelical South Texas. In the works on view, Zapata produces large-scale works that recall architectural forms – pillars, barriers, and curtains – remaking ancient ruins as highly saturated, tactile fields of color and texture. They envelope viewers in alternative landscapes, where solid structures become pliable and plush. Her works draw on the history of feminized textile craft to celebrate histories of resistance and imagine new topographies of queer belonging and power.

Danielle Fretwell (b. 1996) is a painter whose work navigates the space between traditional memetic painting and automatic processes, employing a dialogue of invitation and dissuasion to question the social construction of truth. Through the use of ‘veils’ — deliberate visual obstructions — Fretwell challenges viewers to grapple with concealment and deception, ultimately inviting them to shape their own understanding of what lies beneath the surface. Her practice draws heavily from 17th-century still-life painting, creating polished atmospheres that both seduce and obscure, echoing the complexities of perception in a media-saturated world.

Fretwell has exhibited both nationally and internationally. She had a solo presentation entitled Shallow Invitations at Alice Amati Gallery (London, UK) in 2024. She has participated in group exhibitions at Rubedo Arts (Milan, Italy), Alice Amati Gallery (London, UK), Gallery 263 (Cambridge, MA), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn, NY), and Pianocraft Gallery (Boston, MA), among others. She was an artist-in-residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA in 2021, where she was also awarded the Fellowship Award provided by Boston University. Additional honors include the 2023 MyMA Artist Grant. Her work has been featured in ArtMaze Magazine (Volume 34, 2024). Fretwell received her MFA in Painting from Boston University (2021) and her BFA from Endicott College (2018). She currently lives and works in New Hampshire.

Gianni Politi’s (b.1986, Rome, Italy) is an artist who lives and works in Rome, Italy. His practice, mainly as a painter, is deeply rooted in both the classical and modern pictorial traditions of his native Italy, and his work strives to narrate the struggle of being a contemporary painter today. His desire to understand the relationship between past and present is a driving force behind his painting, which shifts between abstract and figurative images—and from very large to very small canvases.

Politi’s work has been exhibited extensively in Italy and internationally, including at prestigious venues such as the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome, MACRO, the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Palermo, and the Nomas Foundation in Rome. Recent projects include performances and exhibitions at Sargent’s Daughters (Los Angeles, CA), Galleria Lorcan O’Neill (Rome Italy), Palazzo Barberini (Rome, Italy), Monteverdi (Siena, Italy), Fonderia Battaglia (Milan, Italy), 56 Henry (New York, NY), and McNamara Art Projects (Hong Kong). His work has be reviewed in Artforum, Frieze, and Cura Magazine.

Sarah Zapata (b. 1988, Corpus Christi, TX) employs weaving, tufting and traditional craft techniques to create loud, architecturally responsive installations that traverse themes of gender, colonialism and fantasy. Zapata’s site-specific works reflect her intersecting identities as a queer woman of Peruvian heritage raised in Evangelical South Texas and now based in New York. 

Zapata has had solo exhibitions at Arizona State University Museum (2024) in Tempe, Arizona, Galleria Poggiali (2023) in Milan, Italy, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (2023) in Kansas City, Missouri. Her work was feature in a solo presentation at the UBS Art Studio at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024. Zapata’s work has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Barbican Centre (2024) in London, England, at Dunes (2023) in Portland, Maine, at Lisson Gallery (2023) in New York, NY, at Sugar Hill Children’s Museum (2023) in New York, NY, and at the Museum of Arts and Design (2023) in New York, NY. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest Mexico, Artsy, The New York Times, OBRA, Elephant Magazine, PIN-UP, Galerie, BOMB Magazine, and New York Magazine.