In Ori Gallery’s Third Exhibit, Two Emerging Artists Create Their Own Conventions

Printmaker Lo Smith had a formative experience on an art-school elevator. “I ran into a hijabi woman on an elevator who was silently crying,” Smith says. “This big, white professor man was trying to make small talk about the weather with me. Like, we’re pretending that this person who’s obviously crying next to me doesn’t exist.” The interaction led Smith to a question that informs several works in their new show, Linoleum Flowers: “How do we protect and defend each other’s humanity in this space where all of us are fading in and out constantly?”