Luteal Phase At Sunset
September 2 - October 25, 2025
Union Gallery, Wagner College
Curated by Jenny Toth
Images: Renana Neuman
Wagner College is delighted to present LUTEAL PHASE AT SUNSET, a solo exhibition by artist Ye’ela Wilschanski, featuring site-specific fiber-art created for the Union Gallery.
The quilt is stretched on the gallery’s ceiling. On the floor, a mat invites visitors to take their shoes off, lie down, and look up at the quilt horizontally. The 19.6 × 19.6-foot quilt’s patterns are inspired by the sunset and fall foliage. The prominent color is green, with additional pink, orange, yellow, and shades of blue. At the center of the quilt, and at the center of the gallery, the quilt extends a column 6.5 feet long. Only viewers lying down on the mat will see a miniature quilt at the base of the column, aligning with the larger quilt’s pattern. The gallery’s distinctive waffle slab ceiling grid subtly frames the sheer quilt in the background.
The title refers to the final stage of the menstrual cycle, the luteal phase, which for some is characterized by emotional difficulty as hormones shift. Similarly, sunset is a time-based natural chapter that ends the day cycle, and fall is a transition to winter.
Luteal Phase At Sunset is site-specific, both in its dimensions and in its relationship to the gallery’s window and ceiling. When developing this exhibition, Wilschanski knew that whatever she created would be in conversation with the water, sky, and foliage visible from the window by the gallery. These natural elements shift throughout the seasons and over the course of the day. The gallery’s unique architecture prompted her to reflect on the difference between looking at nature versus looking at art. She envisioned the insulation as a place that invites viewers into an experience akin to stargazing, naming cloud shapes, or gazing up at a tree canopy. The soft floor invites visitors to pause, lie down, and look upward at the artwork.
As part of the exhibitions program, Wilschanski led workshops inviting the students from the Department Of Visual Arts to look at the view from the window by the gallery with fresh eyes and create their own art based on their observations.
Wilschanski’s primary medium is sculpture, layered with performance and video. Her time-based architectural-garments carefully construct large geometrical forms, evoking frames such as a window, book or table. These transformative, wearable items the artist enters into, suggest structural shifts in both the artist’s body and the garments. Through her choreography and combination of mediums, Wilschanski examines the notion of functionality and corporeality in an environment she creates. For the exhibition at Union Gallery, Wilschanski invites the community at Wagner College the experience of being inside her sculpture.
