Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2024, pastel pencil on paper, 38 x 50 in.

Ways of Knowing:

Ash Ferlito and Sareh Imani

JUNE 7 - JULY 6, 2025

Ways of Knowing puts artists Ash Ferlito and Sareh Imani into dialogue as the two explore new ways of seeing and noticing elements in the natural world. The exhibition includes Ferlito’s cyanotypes and paintings of moths on muslin and Imani’s highly intricate drawings of organic materials that she discovers on walks in upstate NY.

Ferlito builds sculptural moth stations—structures fit with stretched sheets and long wavelength light sources—and at nightfall, places them outside to attract and visually record the activity of local moths and other insects. She then carefully translates the resulting images onto cyanotype printed on lightweight fabric to create delicate constellations of movement held in time. These overnight observations also inform Ferlito’s paintings on muslin that mimic the patterns of different species of moths seen in her local environment. Applying ink and high flow acrylic paint to wet fabric, the artist allows colors to bleed into one another, forming soft, painterly compositions driven less by verisimilitude than the lived experience of engaging with the natural world.

Imani’s series of drawings, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, is a thoughtful meditation on organic materials the artist collects on walks taken around her home in upstate NY. After building small sculptures out of found objects like berries, rocks, branches, and whirligigs, Imani renders the arrangements in exquisitely detailed pastel pencil drawings on paper. While the works gesture towards hyper-realistic drawings Imani recalls making as a child, the images are not direct replicas of what she sees, but rather slow, meditative impressions of the materials as she closely observes the objects wither, dry, and decompose over time. Core to Imani’s practice are processes of care and maintenance: when a drawing is complete, the artist places the sculpture in a small box and stores it for further preservation.

Individual Artworks

Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2024, pastel pencil on paper, 38 x 50 in.
Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2024, pastel pencil on paper, 38 x 50 in.
Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2024, pastel pencil on paper, 50 × 38 in.
Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2023, pastel pencil on paper, 24 x 18 in.
Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2023, pastel pencil on paper, 24 x 18 in.
Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2023, pastel pencil on paper, 24 x 18 in.
Sareh Imani, When the wind dies down, and the rain grows gentle, 2023, pastel pencil on paper, 24 x 18 in.
Ash Ferlito, Virgin Tiger Moth, 2023, ink and acrylic on muslin, 32 x 32 in.
Ash Ferlito, Ithaca Marsh, 2020-2022, Green tea toned cyanotype on muslin, sumac, willow and grass, acrylic on stretcher, artist made frame, 18 x 14in.
Ash Ferlito, Artemis Io Moth, Female, 2024, nk and acrylic on muslin, 24 x 36in.
Ash Ferlito, FreshKills Park, NYC, 2025, cyanotype on muslin, 48 x 36 in.
Ash Ferlito, Confused Haploa Moth, 2023, acrylic on muslin, 17 x 17 in.
Ash Ferlito, Montello, NV, 2020-21, cyanotype on muslin, 48 x 44 in.