The Armory Show 2025: Jacqueline Surdell

5 - 7 September 2025
  • Javits Center, 429 11th Ave, New York City
    VIP Preview: Thursday, September 4 | Invitation Only | 11 - 7
    Friday, September 5 | 11 – 7
    Saturday, September 6 | 11 – 7
    Sunday, September 7 | 11 - 6
  • SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to announce our solo presentation of Chicago-based artist Jacqueline Surdell in the Galleries Section, Booth 215, of the 2025 Armory Show. On view will be a suite of wall-based fiber works created through knotted textile forms. This presentation precedes her debut solo exhibition at SECRIST | BEACH opening September 19.
     
    On large-scale looms, Jacqueline Surdell employs the full force of her body, weaving sculptural topographies that physically and metaphorically investigate material, space, and time. Her woven reliefs - composed of twisted, bound, and tightly or loosely wefted ropes and shipping lines - pay homage to painterly traditions of depth and perspective while simultaneously exposing the illusionistic nature of the picture plane. 
     
    Drawing from religious imagery, pastoral landscapes, and forest surveys, Surdell constructs a narrative of grief and joy, violence and tenderness, play and survival - all in flux. Throughout the weavings are images of historically relevant images printed on sheets of fabric, cut into strips and woven into the artworks. These include Jan van Eyck's Adam and Eve from the Ghent Altarpiece and painting renditions of The Conversion of Saul by the artists Guido Reni, Jérôme Cartellier, and Luca Giordano. Each artwork represents a complex moment representing both exile and of vision, where the sacred and the haunted coexist. 
     
    Surdell’s monumental wall sculpture, Suddenly, she was hell-bent and ravenous (after Giotto), will make its debut at this year’s edition of The Armory Show. This artwork was built in situ over the course of 3 months during the gallery’s 2024 summer survey exhibition titled Making Time. This artwork marks a new point of exploration within Surdell’s practice which examines the sublimity of religious imagery, drawing source material from Giotto’s 14th century fresco of The Last Judgement in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy.
  • Jacqueline Surdell, Suddenly, she was hell-bent and ravenous (after Giotto), 2024

    Jacqueline Surdell

    Suddenly, she was hell-bent and ravenous (after Giotto), 2024
    Nylon cord, steel, polyester fabric, steel spool top, steel chain and meat hooks
    165 (body) x 252 (pole to pole) x 7 inches
  • Suddenly, she was hell-bent and ravenous (after Giotto) draws on Giotto’s 14th century fresco of The Last Judgement in the...

    Suddenly, she was hell-bent and ravenous (after Giotto) draws on Giotto’s 14th century fresco of The Last Judgement in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. Here, Surdell probes the question of who has authority and power in art historical discourse to mark the beginning of an artistic movement. The title, pulling from the creation story, offers the artist herself—or, more generally the self—as a new protagonist of transformative narratives.

     

     

     

    Giotto

    The Last Judgement, 1305

    Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, Padua, Italy

  • Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432 St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium Taking Jan van Eyck's...

    Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432

    St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium

     

    Taking Jan van Eyck's Adam and Eve from The Ghent Altarpiece (1432), Surdell places each figure in a modern reliquary, framing the imagery weaved into the relief structure with a dense, knotted border, fusing a reliquary-esque structure with the aesthetics of an ornate door.

    • Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck Eva from The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432

      Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck

      Eva from The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432

    • Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck Adam from The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432

      Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck

      Adam from The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432

    • Jacqueline Surdell Eve, 2025 Nylon cord, polyester fabric, steel frame 100 x 44 x 7 inches
      Jacqueline Surdell
      Eve, 2025
      Nylon cord, polyester fabric, steel frame
      100 x 44 x 7 inches
    • Jacqueline Surdell Adam, 2025 Nylon cord, polyester fabric, steel frame 100 x 45 x 10 inches
      Jacqueline Surdell
      Adam, 2025
      Nylon cord, polyester fabric, steel frame
      100 x 45 x 10 inches
  • Jacqueline Surdell, Lionsgate Portal: The Conversion of St. Paul (after Jérôme Cartellier), 2025

    Jacqueline Surdell

    Lionsgate Portal: The Conversion of St. Paul (after Jérôme Cartellier), 2025
    Nylon cord, cotton cord, polyester fabric, steel
    56 x 75 x 14 inches
  • With vibrant hues, Surdell annotates the image of Saul from Jérôme Cartellier's The Conversion of Saul (1859), fallen from his...

    With vibrant hues, Surdell annotates the image of Saul from Jérôme Cartellier's The Conversion of Saul (1859), fallen from his horse, in a moment of spiritual vision—his conversion to Paul. With a weighty—in all senses of the word—grounding, Surdell imagines the composition of the historical painting architecturally. In the top left corner, Surdell has used rope in shades of blue to emulate the spiritual awe of a light beam towards Saul.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Jérôme Cartellier

    The Conversion of Saint Paul, 1859

  • Jacqueline Surdell, Stigmata 2, 2025

    Jacqueline Surdell

    Stigmata 2, 2025
    Nylon cord, cotton cord, and steel
    28 x 26 x 9 inches, body
    32 inches, hanging cord
  • Jacqueline Surdell, Cloudscape: She Paused, Peering Through the Veil, 2025

    Jacqueline Surdell

    Cloudscape: She Paused, Peering Through the Veil, 2025
    Nylon cord, cotton cord, polyester fabric, steel
    51 x 76 x 13 inches
  • Exploring the pastoral through Jan van Kessel the Elder’s The Garden of Eden (1659), Surdell evokes the spirituality in Guido...

    Exploring the pastoral through Jan van Kessel the Elder’s The Garden of Eden (1659), Surdell evokes the spirituality in Guido Reni’s The Conversion of Saul (1615-1620) through the landscape, with an almost magical touch, weaving luminosity into the piece. In this piece, the disciplines of painting and textile fuse through color and density, with the artist miming the landscape imagery through novel material engagement.

     

     

     

     

     

    Jan van Kessel the Elder

    The Garden of Eden, 1659

  • Jacqueline Surdell, Stigmata 1, 2025

    Jacqueline Surdell

    Stigmata 1, 2025
    Nylon cord, cotton cord, and steel
    42 x 35 x 12 inches, body
    43 inches, hanging cord