Nina Johnson & Working Loose present
Birdhouse
June 27th–September 1st, 2025
Working Loose: 49 Main Street, Blue Hill, ME 04614
Opening Reception: Friday, June 27th 4pm - 7pm
This summer, Birdhouse gathers thirteen artists at Working Loose—a gallery, shop, and event space in Maine—to explore the birdhouse as both object and idea. At once humble and symbolic, the birdhouse is a form that quietly carries deep associations: with shelter, transience, care, labor, and the desire to build something for another.
The exhibition features works by Susan Cianciolo, F. Taylor Colantonio, Madeline Donahue, Richard Keen, Jeff Kinkle, Minjae Kim, Savannah Knoop, Ficus Interfaith, Estefania Puerta, Jonathan Rajewski, Katie Stout, Ty Williams, and Olivia Vigo.
The sculptural works on view use the birdhouse as a point of departure—some in direct, functional form, others more abstract in approach. Across materials and sensibilities, the artists consider how to make room: for others, for nature, for stories, or simply for beauty. In this way, Birdhouse becomes a meditation on impermanence and offerings.
Organized in collaboration with Nina Johnson Gallery, the exhibition features artists including Susan Cianciolo, whose works often draw on domestic ritual and reuse; Katie Stout, whose bold, tactile furnishings infuse functional forms with play and excess; Ficus Interfaith, a collaborative duo working with terrazzo, natural materials, and sacred geometries; and Minjae Kim, whose hand-built furniture and sculpture reflect a subtle dialogue between architecture and memory. Cianciolo, Stout, and Madeliene Donahue—whose practice often centers the domestic and the personal—each have meaningful ties to Maine, grounding the show in a sense of place.
Installed at Working Loose, Birdhouse is shaped in conversation with its site—not just its architecture, but its atmosphere, its rhythms, and its role as a gathering space. It’s not a didactic show, nor a grand statement, but rather an open field of gestures— temporary structures built with care and imagination, inviting viewers to look closely and linger.
What does it mean to build something meant to be left behind? What forms of attention and tenderness live in that act? Birdhouse doesn’t offer answers so much as a space to dwell in the question.
With special thanks to Kat Herriman.
Nina Johnson is a contemporary art gallery committed to elevating exceptional artists and their work. Founded by Nina Johnson in 2007, the gallery is both a pillar of Miami’s contemporary art community and an internationally recognized voice known for its wide-ranging and intuitive program. In the spring of 2024 Johnson was welcomed as a member of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA).
Nina Johnson’s mission is to champion extraordinary artists’ work while forming long-term partnerships through deep, intentional connections. The gallery’s approach is artist-driven, rooted in an appreciation for historical context and the physical practice of making and exhibiting artwork. Nina Johnson has produced renowned exhibitions by a broad range of artists from around the world, including Germane Barnes, Judy Chicago, Patrick Dean Hubbell, Francesca DiMattio, Rochelle Feinstein, Minjae Kim, Emmett Moore, Eamon Ore-Giron, Woody De Othello, and Katie Stout.
Nina Johnson is located in a four-building compound in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood and features a traditional exhibition space and ancillary gallery spaces in a two-story converted residence in the backyard.
