t e s t i m o n y
Pernille Braun • Emily Culver
Emily Hermant • Abi Ogle • Nikki Rayburn
Curated by Jack Wax
Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of “testimony”, a group exhibition curated by Jack Wax, showcasing work by Abi Ogle, Emily Culver, Nikki Rayburn, Emily Hermant, & Pernille Braun. The exhibition opens on Friday, March 20, 2026 with a public reception from 5 – 7 pm. The show runs through May 8.
“Testimony is the most high because in doing it we seek nothing for ourselves. It is the unguarded, immediate public revelation of where, what, and who we have been. It is holy and profane. To testify is to be of service to something larger than oneself. It is the faithful act, which reminds us that though the world is on fire, and we are the flesh and the spirit of pain and relief, we can live with such strife. It is the substance of what we hope for—that we are not alone.”
Excerpt from THE BROKEN KING, Michael Thomas
“The tangible/analog “world,” is so chock-full of perceptual shifts that we rarely take the time to dwell upon, and so it is wonderful, and wonderous to have in this exhibition artists who have concerned themselves with efforts at distillation, discernment, and discrimination. They all showcase a remarkable acuteness of judgment with deep and uncanny understanding. The works shown act to slow-the-world-down and can effectively forge gently concentrated antidotes to all the cacophony and the frenzy taking place outside the gallery walls. Here within there are quiet declarations, and hushed reminders to pay closer attention, to take notice, and to take the time to reflect”
-Jack Wax, Curator
Abi Ogle, Ruby Pt. II, 2025, Red human hair embroidery on Great-Great Grandmother Ruby’s tablecloth, 14 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches
About the Artists
Abi Ogle
Abi Ogle uses bodily materials such as human hair and grapefruit membranes to diffuse grief and explore hope, memory, and loss. Often characterized by the familiar-made-strange, her practice is built on the belief that art makes us more human, that materials matter, and that if we take the time to listen to the stories of others, they change us.
After earning her B.A. from Covenant College in 2018, Abi was invited to residencies at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Vermont Studio Center, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at The Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (Lubbock, TX), the Harrison Center (Indianapolis, IN), and Lone Star College (Houston, TX). In 2023, she received her M.F.A. in Craft/Material Studies with a focus in fiber from Virginia Commonwealth University and completed a fellowship at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. She currently lives and works in Houston, Texas.
Emily Culver
Existing primarily as sculpture, jewelry and objects, Emily Culver’s work explores notions of intimacy, (non)functionality, gender and identity through corporeal qualities. Through these works she considers how interactions among objects are interpreted, translated, and mutated by negotiations with the body and anthropocentric tendencies.
Culver actively exhibits her creative work nationally and internationally and is the recipient of various awards and residencies, including a 2017 Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, a 2022 residency at the James Castle House and grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Art among many others.
She holds a MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, a BFA from Tyler School of Art and is an Assistant Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.
Nikki Rayburn
Nikki Rayburn received an MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013 and a BFA in Woodworking and Furniture Design from Maine College of Art in 2011. Her work embraces traditional craft techniques, with training in woodworking, textiles, and basketry construction, and aims to honor the laborious and physical nature of one’s making practice. Nikki has exhibited her work throughout the United States, and has work included in multiple permanent collections including the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, VA. She has worked in exhibitions management and art handling, taught in universities and schools of craft, and currently serves as an administrator at Maine College of Art & Design in Portland, ME.
Emily Hermant
Emily Hermant (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the materiality of communication. She holds a BFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University in Montréal, and an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received a Trustee Merit Scholarship. Hermant has participated in over 50 exhibitions, including 20 solo exhibitions. Her work has been featured in TimeOut Chicago, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Espace Sculpture, ArtSlant, and The Village Voice, and has been supported by numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, Québec Arts Council, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She has participated in residencies at BoxoProjects in Joshua Tree, the Burrard Arts Foundation, Haystack, Ox-Bow School of Art, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Nordic Artists’ Centre in Norway, with a forthcoming residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York in spring 2026. Hermant is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she is Associate Professor of Sculpture + Expanded Practices at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She is represented by Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver.
Pernille Braun
Working with glass for more than two decades, Danish artist Pernille Braun has participated in numerous international exhibitions and has held solo exhibitions in France, the United States, Belgium, and Denmark. In her practice, Braun investigates notions of time, place, and materiality, which she explores through glass with a high level of technical and conceptual precision.
She studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Bornholm, and received an MA from the Royal College of Art in London in 2008. Her work is represented in several public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Danish Arts Foundation, the Ariana Museum (Geneva), Bornholm Art Museum, and Design Museum Denmark.
In 2024, Braun was awarded a three-year working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation. She lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In conjunction with
t e s t i m o n y
w e l t e r
A collection of work by artist and curator Jack Wax.
Jack was born in 1954 in the Hudson River Valley region. He received his BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and MFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design (1978, 1983). He has held teaching positions at the Tyler School of Art, Ohio State University, The Cleveland Institute of Art, RISD, and Toyama Institute in Japan. Currently, he is a professor in Richmond at VCUarts, where he is head of the Glass Section in Craft and Material Studies. He is a two time recipient of Individual Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, was nominated three times for a Tiffany Foundation Grant, was a recipient of an Illinois State Council of the Arts Grant, and he has held residencies in Istanbul Turkey at Cam Ocagi, at The Corning Museum in Corning NY, and on the Island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. His work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum, CA; Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY; Tittot Museum, Taipei; Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC; and in the corporate collections of Altria Group and Markel Corporation, both, Richmond, VA.