Florida Work / 2024-2026
Photographs by Hannah Edelman @hannah__edelman and Mateo Ruiz Gonzalez @mathewfg
Words by Brad Zellar @bradzellar
Opening May 28th, 7-10pm
292 Broome St.
New York, NY
This exhibition presents recent work by Hannah Edelman and Mateo Ruiz Gonzalez, made in and around Florida.
Their work returns to Florida as both lived terrain and constructed image. Rather than defining home, the exhibition holds it in suspension between projection and reality. Florida emerges as shared ground, shaping memory and identity while resisting containment. What unfolds is not a unified vision of place but an ongoing push and pull with a landscape that sustains, constructs, and, at times, threatens the bodies it raises.
On View May 28 - June 3 @slamjam
“On the seventh day, creation found its quiet end, and there was rest. The peace that followed was spent in contemplation of the divine work—a pause that honored what was shared, and the ache that arrived with letting go.”
My book Seventh Summer will be out this fall, and for the first time in a while, maybe because I’m extremely hungover, I’ve found myself reflecting on the impact this body of work has had on my life. It feels like a dream within a dream to have so many talented people take part in this project. I know it’s a little too soon, but I want to thank @jfridlyand@photobookprogram@emotional_geographies@georgeweld@codyhaltom@richard_siken , and everyone else who somehow saw something meaningful in these photographs. @bryanschutmaat title is on you!
Print sale!
New Bed Stuy Boxing Gym, 2024.
Editioned and signed 16x12 Archival pigment prints on Hahnemühle bamboo paper. I made this work and prints during my @magnumfoundation NYC fellowship in 2024. I still have 4 of these prints and I want them to find a home.
$70 local pickup/meet in NYC. Will ship domestic if requested!
It will come with a small poster I made, inspired by the “Humble School of Martial Arts,” the school that inspired and shaped the project as a whole.
A short story I wrote for @georgeweld writing workshop with @penumbrafoundation is now up on my Substack. Accompanied by one song and these four photographs.
Trying to get back on the Substack Rhythm. Link in my bio if you can really be bothered and want to read it.
Recuerda, Maria, que somos pasto de perros y aves, somos hombres calcinados. Cortezas vacías de lo que éramos antes. De que estás hecha, niña mía? Por qué crees que puedes coserle la grieta al paisaje con el hilo de tu voz, cuando esta tierra es una herida que sangra en ti y en mi y en todas las cosas hechas de ceniza?
@andreacote27
—
Remember, María, that we are fodder for dogs and birds, we are charred men. Empty husks of what we once were. What are you made of, my child? Why do you think you can stitch the crack in the landscape with the thread of your voice, when this land is a wound that bleeds in you and in me and in all things made of ash?
I’ve left your mistakes with you, and I’ve taken responsibility for my own—ones I’ll carry into the new cycle and beyond. A hell of a year but grateful for what stayed beside me: a troubled yet unconditional family, friendship as a sheltering force, holding within it people beyond measure. A body that shook and fell apart, yet still remembered and hold onto the good days and found its way back up. And last—most important of all—a dog, my friend, the one who never asks and always gives, offering nothing but his warmth in return.
Life is unfair. Life does not care. But despite everything, there is always a way to trace the ruins back to their lines—the ones that have always held you together—so you’re ready for when the next fire breaks.
On to the new year. 2025, you fucking sucked—but in tearing things apart, you sharpened my sight and strengthened my will. I love you all ❤️
