Instagram story viewer> @themiddleroomgallery> Posts

The Middle Room

@themiddleroomgallery

3.9K

followers

2318

following

Female-focused gallery concentrating on mid-career artists and on creating connections, conversation, and community. Directed by @shannonraefincke

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

👀A closer look at the powerful details in Joy Ray’s work in SPEAK TO ME, on view through October 11. 🗣️Join us TODAY at 4pm for an Artist Talk to learn more about Joy’s process and practice—a happy hour reception will follow.🥂

. . .

Joy Ray is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and researcher who lives and works in Los Angeles. Ray uses installation, textiles, and digital media to investigate the palpable presence of the unknown, unseen, redacted, illegible, uncanny, and haunted. Central to her research into the unknowable are methods of abstraction, concealment, illumination, and reconstitution that extract visual language from archival texts. Ray’s research-based installations activate the poetics of archival material, bringing ghosts to life.

. . .

The Middle Room is open by appointment and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-3pm while the exhibition is on view.

For press and sales inquiries or a checklist contact info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com.

@joyrayart #themiddleroomgallery taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

17

0

a day ago

👀A closer look at the incredible details in Emily Silver’s work in SPEAK TO ME, on view through October 11. 🗣️Join us TODAY at 4pm for an Artist Talk to learn more about Emily’s process and practice—a happy hour reception will follow.🥂

. . .

Emily Silver is an artist working across textiles, sculpture, and installation who lives and works in Los Angeles. Beginning with processes of tracing, translation, and material transformation, her sculptural weavings translate language into structure. Silver embeds text, coded symbols, and shifting materials to produce forms that move between legibility and abstraction, where humor and grief sit uncomfortably close. Shaped by experiences of loss, bodily change, and broader instability, Silver’s work engages labor as a form of endurance. Fibers are bound, layered, and reworked through time-intensive processes that register care and persistence rather than resolution.

. . .

The Middle Room is open by appointment and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-3pm while the exhibition is on view.

For press and sales inquiries or a checklist contact info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com.

@emilysilverstudio #themiddleroomgallery taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

83

3

a day ago

Speak To Me is an evocative, tactile exhibition that explores the intersection of words, fibers, and form—creating a complex, dialogue-driven pairing of two distinct multidisciplinary artists who use mixed soft sculptural media and language as subject matter. The text and textile works of Joy Ray and Emily Silver navigate the spaces between expression and material, abstraction and legibility, heartache and humor. Drawing from textile traditions while pushing into three-dimensional space, their works challenge the boundaries between text and image, asking viewers to encounter fragmented and reconfigured words not only as something to read, but as something to see and feel—where meaning hovers at the edge of recognition.

Within this shared conceptual framework, Ray and Silver move in strikingly different emotional and visual registers. Ray creates solemn, dense, monochromatic, contemplative works that reach toward what is remembered, inherited, and unknowable. Silver infuses her work with vibrant color, texture, and exuberant materiality, giving weight to sharp wit and tender vulnerability. The installation brings these distinct bodies of work into proximity, creating a dynamic exchange across the gallery space where intensity and levity, grief and resilience, the intellectual and the emotional exist in productive tension. The compelling physical surfaces carry complex narratives that extend beyond the literal meaning of words. Speak To Me considers what happens when language leaves the page and becomes physical—when words become both subject and visual elements, transformed into structure and surface while taking on functions and meanings beyond their literal definitions. The works invite close looking, revealing layers of meaning that emerge through the contrast between what can be understood and what can be felt, while leaving space for what remains unresolved.

•Artists•
@joyrayart
@emilysilverstudio
•Curator+Exhibition Designer•
@shannonraefincke

ARTIST TALK+RECEPTION: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 4–6PM #themiddleroomgallery #artinla #laart taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

48

0

2 days ago

“proven through longing” by Joy Ray

Come see this powerful piece in our current exhibition SPEAK TO ME and join us for our Artist Talk & Reception this Sunday 10.4, 4-6pm.

Joy Ray
proven through longing
2026
Thrift store denim, twine, fabric, paint, sand, gravel | Text from The Red Book by Carl Jung
52x23x4

For press and sales inquiries or a checklist contact info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com

#TheMiddleRoomGallery #ArtinLA
#ArtistTalk #LAArtists #AtwaterVillage taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

22

1

3 days ago

“Lil Fucker” by Emily Silver

Come see this striking piece in our current exhibition SPEAK TO ME and join us for our Artist Talk & Reception this Sunday 10.4, 4-6pm.

Emily Silver
Lil Fucker
2026
Wood, Wool, Cotton, Embroidery, Acrylic
21x17x6

For press and sales inquiries or a checklist contact info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com

#TheMiddleRoomGallery #ArtinLA
#ArtistTalk #LAArtists #AtwaterVillage taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

95

2

3 days ago

We’re honored by your recognition @13thingsla @shananys @heidijo_la
🗣️Please join us THIS SUNDAY 10/4 from 4-6pm for an Artist Talk & Reception! 🗣️ taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

27

1

5 days ago

📅𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗢𝗰𝘁 𝟰
Join us at 𝟰𝗽𝗺 for an Artist Talk with 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘛𝘰 𝘔𝘦 Artists Joy Ray and Emily Silver, moderated by Curator Shannon Rae Fincke, followed by a Happy Hour Reception.

🖼️ 𝟰:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 – Arrival & Exhibition Viewing
🗣️ 𝟰:𝟮𝟬 𝗣𝗠 – Artist Talk
💬 𝟱:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 – Q&A
🥂 𝟱:𝟮𝟬 𝗣𝗠 – Drinks & Reception
🌇 𝟲:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 – Make it a full fall evening and head out for an al fresco dinner at one of our favorite neighboring Glendale Blvd restaurants like @allacquarestaurant, @bar_sinizki, @holybasil_la , @bonvivantmarketcafe , @spinalosangeles or @hailmarypizza! 🍽️

#TheMiddleRoomGallery
#ArtinLA
#ArtistTalk
#LAArtists
#AtwaterVillage taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

101

3

6 days ago

Included in our show SPEAK TO ME is a powerfully dynamic anchor in the exhibition installation by Emily Silver.🧵🧶

As It Burns
2026
Wood, wool, cotton, netting, acrylic
59x51x17

Sales Inquiries: Info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com

. . .

Speak To Me is an evocative, tactile exhibition that explores the intersection of words, fibers, and form—creating a complex, dialogue-driven pairing of two distinct multidisciplinary artists who use mixed soft sculptural media and language as subject matter. The text and textile works of Joy Ray and Emily Silver navigate the spaces between expression and material, abstraction and legibility, heartache and humor. Drawing from textile traditions while pushing into three-dimensional space, their works challenge the boundaries between text and image, asking viewers to encounter fragmented and reconfigured words not only as something to read, but as something to see and feel—where meaning hovers at the edge of recognition.

. . .

The Middle Room is open by appointment and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-3pm while the exhibition is on view.

@emilysilver #emilysilver #laart #laartist
#artinla #themiddleroomgallery
Installation 📸 @false_artifacts taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

145

20

8 days ago

My friend Joy Ray’s work just keeps getting better, each iteration more ambitious and experimental. I visited her exhibition, Speak To Me, at the Middle Room just before leaving for New York, and was struck again by her tenacity and her constant push to expand her visual language. It is awesome to watch an artist’s ideas expand and evolve over time and yet still essentially carry the essence and vision of the artist.

Joy’s undulating stuffed forms bring to mind furniture tufting, brain matter, intestines, and spandex stretched over an unruly feminine body. The fissures and stitching between them read like chasms, a kind of void between forms.
I can always spot a Joy Ray, regardless of the materials, her commitment to materializing the gap between words and meaning, is always there.
Joy is a Los Angeles based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and researcher. Working across installation, textiles, and digital media, she explores the unknown and unseen, often drawing visual language from archival materials. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her work has been exhibited at Hauser & Wirth, MCA Chicago, and other galleries and museums.

I’m looking forward to hearing Joy speak about this work. Join Joy and Emily Silver for an artist talk and Q&A.

Speak To Me is on view through October 11.

Artist Talk + Q&A
Sunday, October 4, 4–6 PM
The Middle Room @themiddleroomgallery @joyrayart taken in Atwater Village by @themiddleroomgallery

128

15

8 days ago

Stop by TODAY to chat with Joy Ray! by @themiddleroomgallery

52

2

9 days ago

Included in our current show SPEAK TO ME is a stunning centerpiece in the exhibition installation by Joy Ray.🖤❤️🖤

we have within us a countless host
2025
Fabric, paint, stuffing and plastic food on custom shaped wood panel. text from Phenomenology of Spirit by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
48x40x5 inches

Sales Inquiries: Info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com

. . .

Speak To Me is an evocative, tactile exhibition that explores the intersection of words, fibers, and form—creating a complex, dialogue-driven pairing of two distinct multidisciplinary artists who use mixed soft sculptural media and language as subject matter. The text and textile works of Joy Ray and Emily Silver navigate the spaces between expression and material, abstraction and legibility, heartache and humor. Drawing from textile traditions while pushing into three-dimensional space, their works challenge the boundaries between text and image, asking viewers to encounter fragmented and reconfigured words not only as something to read, but as something to see and feel—where meaning hovers at the edge of recognition.

. . .

The Middle Room is open by appointment and on Saturdays and Sundays from 1-3pm while the exhibition is on view.

@joyrayart #joyray #laart #laartist
#artinla #themiddleroomgallery
Installation 📸 @false_artifacts
Artist Portrait 📸 @chloecus taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

60

5

10 days ago

SPEAK TO ME
Artists
@joyrayart @emilysilverstudio
Curator+Exhibition Designer
@shannonraefincke
Assistant
@carolineyuratich
Photographer
@false_artifacts

On View
Weekends 1-3pm thru 10.11.26

Artist Talk
Sunday 10.4.26 at 4pm

Sales Inquiries
Info@TheMiddleRoomGallery.com

. . .

Speak To Me is an evocative, tactile exhibition that explores the intersection of words, fibers, and form—creating a complex, dialogue-driven pairing of two distinct multidisciplinary artists who use mixed soft sculptural media and language as subject matter. The text and textile works of Joy Ray and Emily Silver navigate the spaces between expression and material, abstraction and legibility, heartache and humor. Drawing from textile traditions while pushing into three-dimensional space, their works challenge the boundaries between text and image, asking viewers to encounter fragmented and reconfigured words not only as something to read, but as something to see and feel—where meaning hovers at the edge of recognition.

Within this shared conceptual framework, Ray and Silver move in strikingly different emotional and visual registers. Ray creates solemn, dense, monochromatic, contemplative works that reach toward what is remembered, inherited, and unknowable. Silver infuses her work with vibrant color, texture, and exuberant materiality, giving weight to sharp wit and tender vulnerability. The installation brings these distinct bodies of work into proximity, creating a dynamic exchange across the gallery space where intensity and levity, grief and resilience, the intellectual and the emotional exist in productive tension. The compelling physical surfaces carry complex narratives that extend beyond the literal meaning of words. Speak To Me considers what happens when language leaves the page and becomes physical—when words become both subject and visual elements, transformed into structure and surface while taking on functions and meanings beyond their literal definitions. The works invite close looking, revealing layers of meaning that emerge through the contrast between what can be understood and what can be felt, while leaving space for what remains unresolved. taken in Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California by @themiddleroomgallery

151

25

13 days ago