CARTE BLANCHE: WORKS ON PAPER
March 28th through May 9th, 2026

gallery neptune & brown is pleased to present Carte Blanche: Works on Paper. The exhibition features nine local and national artists who explore paper beyond the boundaries of the page through collage, watercolor, graphite, photography, oil on paper, and mixed media.

Alexandra Chiou and Caleb Nussear both transform paper with bold colors--one with cuts and the other with folds. Chiou carves thousands of painted pieces of paper, arranging and pasting them in complex compositions. Nussear creates dynamic folded colored drawings using the Japanese Miura folding method.

Erick Johnson and Nick Lamia create geometric and abstract paintings and drawings. Working with oil paint on paper, Johnson builds layered patterns and rhythms of geometric paintings that blur the line between precision and imperfection. With his love of nature and architecture, Lamia creates abstract paintings and drawings that use geometric and architectural lines alongside organic shapes to evoke the poetic tension between the natural world and the constructed one.

Charles Ritchie and Ben Tolman create highly intricate drawings. Through his drawing practice of over fifty years Ritchie has found inspiration in his home and neighborhood, using watercolor and graphite to investigate domestic themes. Ben Tolman executes highly detailed and time-consuming architectural pen drawings of complex manufactured realities that explore broader social and political themes.

Redeat Wondemu, Soomin Ham and Michael Dax Iacovone all work in photography. In Wondemu’s Flower Studies, created during her year-long residency at Hillwood Estate, she captures her ongoing interest in immortalizing ephemerality through long-form study. Ham uses photography and mixed media in her Windows series to explore familial relations, memory, identity, and dreams. Iacovone is a land artist and photographer who creates large-scale sand and salt drawings in the earth and documents his work by drone before they disappear.

ALEXANDRA CHIOU

SOOMIN HAM

Michael Dax Iacovone