Michael Gabrielle’s macrame tapestries are optical illusions. Three-dimensional sculptures, they often feel like they exist in two-dimensions when they lay flat or mark a threshold. King’s illustrations on paper, each lovingly extracted from an esoteric primary source, similarly conflate perceptions of depth; they are flattened by digital tools, but are enlivened when brought into conversation with an audience.

Gabrielle and King say that PVDFest public art commissions enabled them to face new conceptual and formal challenges with their work. Indeed, the festival’s multi-genre formats invites a special kind of engagement from audiences, but so too do the walls of the Gallery at City Hall. With its staid mayoral portraits and elaborate gold filigrees, City Hall’s second floor gallery becomes a stage for a series of magical encounters between Gabrielle and King, perhaps even a portal to another world.

Square Knots and Tightropes is an occasion for both of them to look back at their experiences prior to, and during, PVDFest while pushing each other to reach for astounding new heights.