PRESS RELEASE: Two Artists: ELISHA BROCKENBERRY and ELIANA MESA -- SUNDAY, May 17, 2026 at BRIGHTWORKS GALLERY, 38 Rusling Place, Bridgeport, CT 06604
jfor...@aol.com
Opening Reception: Sunday
May 17, 2026, 2 to 5 pm
BRIGHTWORKS GALLERY, 38
Rusling Place, Bridgeport, CT
06604
Refreshments.
5d1:0x90b88d75a2302f36!8m2!3d41.180821!4d-73.2144565!16s%2Fg%2F11c5fv9jc4?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDkyMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
CO-CURATED by JOHN ANTHONY BRIGHT Brightworks Gallery john.w...@gmail.com and JOHNES RUTA AzothGallery.com azothg...@comcast.net
Elisha Brockenberry
Born in and committed to Bridgeport, CT. Elisha Brockenberry (b.2002) has been creating with her hands and brain based on reality and dreams for 10 years. not much time in the grand scheme of existence. but a careful weaving of information is done in these works, some intentional, and some in which the artist's desires have been bypassed by the hand of the greatest creator. Like any brain, she creates only from the material passed down in DNA and received in sight, sound, dreams, and touch. Yet each piece seems to speak intimately about her city, body, and the state of her people, through a voluminous language utilizing seemingly mundane objects, and the magic of paint.
Follow Elisha at @righteouspath.2002 on Instagram
Attachments:
Elisha Brockenberry - Family barbecue -Oil paint and foil on wood 20” x 24” 2021
Elisha Brockenberry - Jesus body can heal itself and I’m assuming yours can too - Clay, fabric, frankincense, myrrh, 48” x 30” 2024
Eliana Mesa - Kali
- oil on canvas 5 x 4 ft
Eliana Mesa - Blue
Meanie - oil on canvas
7 x 8 ft
Eliana Mesa - Space Boy
- oil on canvas 5 x 6 ft
Eliana Mesa - Untitled
- mixed media on wood panel, 5 x 6
ft
Review by Suzanne
Kachmar, City Lights Gallery:
Elisha Brockenberry lives in the world of becoming. This is reflected in her art-making, the choice of found objects that she incorporates into her work, her process, and her passion for urban farming. (During the pandemic shutdown she appropriated an unstewarded patch of a community garden that became a haven for creating and gathering for local youth.) Her understanding and fascination for the biology of flux is combined with her musings and preoccupation with the connection between the astral present, past and future and wonder of her ancestral roots. She is a picker of stuff. She admires the design, potential and intrinsic qualities of found detritus. Elisha has a Puck-like nature, she pushes boundaries and doesn’t accept things or situations as conventionally established. She plays with symbolism and ‘reality’ and challenges the viewer with intimate subject matter or illogical pairings like a hammer and fabric epoxied onto large flat charcoal-black board of insulation.
Elisha exhibited an assemblage that was primarily a painting, with a Dali-esque surrealism. Light blue painting of drapery transitions to a patch of sky, then to a tear. She also includes an actual piece of fabric to further exploit the tension between reality and conceptual. She plays with portraiture: painted, collaged, and missing from where the viewer would conventionally ‘expect’ a face to be.
Like other artists when they are in their astral art-making process, she assumes the role of the channel through which truths and beauty are manifested into art. She as well as other artists admit that at the moment of creation and perhaps for some time afterwards, the meaning of the artwork may not be apparent; but she knows in her soul that the art is true and relevant. For some artists, including the author of this article, it can be years before the ‘meaning’ of a piece is realized.
Flashbacks of seeing Louise Nevelson rummage through a discarded wood pile in SoHo appear while discussing with Elisha this work on view in FACES. A crushed piece of metal substitutes the ear on the portrait. Elisha found a fleck of litter while on a walk. For Elisha she found it and saw it as an ear before it was an ear. It reads as an ear on the side of the subject’s head. Her approach to artmaking is echoed in her everyday apparel. One never knows what or how she will wear or upcycle clothing. This is how Elisha sees and walks through her life. Her becoming is full of potential.
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Eliana Mesa
Artist statement :
My work spans mixed media
painting and ceramics, exploring
themes of consciousness, duality,
and the human search for meaning and
the divine. I am drawn to the
tension between good and evil, and
the ways in which these opposing
forces coexist within both the
individual and the universe.
Rooted in personal experience and
emotion, my work begins with a
question or feeling I am trying to
understand. I am deeply inspired by
the nature of reality itself,
drawing from religion, quantum
physics, and the patterns found in
nature. I often incorporate ideas of
electromagnetism and light as both
scientific phenomena and symbolic
elements, representing unseen forces
that shape perception, energy, and
existence.
My process is fluid and intuitive, shifting with each piece while remaining grounded in exploration. Through layered materials and varied forms, I attempt to give shape to what cannot be easily seen—thought, energy, and the space between the physical and the metaphysical.
Ultimately, my work is an invitation. I aim to take viewers on the same journey I experience during creation, encouraging them to question, reflect, and engage with the deeper uncertainties of existence and their own understanding of reality.
Eliana mesa is a painter and multidisciplinary artist based at the NEST ARTS FACTORY in Bridgeport, CT. her practice centers on sculpture and oil painting. Her practice is rooted in experimentation allowing intuition and material response to guide her work across disciplines. Her work often suggests a dialogue between control and spontaneity resulting in forms that feel deliberate and alive.
Opening Reception: Sunday May 17, 2026, 2 to 5 pm
BRIGHTWORKS GALLERY, 38
Rusling Place, Bridgeport, CT
06604
Refreshments.
(917) 886-8214 (203) 668-6933
