Crossing Water brings together the work of four female artists and a curator who met in early2023 at an artist residency in Andalucia, Spain (Joya:AiR). During this ecological residency, the artists worked in contact with the landscape – an arid environment subject to sudden floods –and with each other. They embarked on a project that would extend these lines of connection.

The project addresses the transformative act of crossing water from different perspectives –and nods to their literal journeys across oceans and rivers to meet and work together: from theUSA, UK, Spain, Germany and Italy.

After working together online for a year, developing the project, the group met for the secondtime in March 2024, in Extremadura, Spain. At a residency in the Sierra de Gredos National Park (Ras de Terra), the artists lived and worked together, responding to the impressive terrain of mountains and thunderous rivers. This phase of collaboration culminated in an exhibition in theRas de Terra gallery.

The artists met for a third time in Nacogdoches, Texas, to prepare the exhibition in the Reavley Gallery at the Cole Art Center, sponsored by SFASU. This was where they were able to give shape to the final stage of the project.

Through various mediums and forms, the artists take the audience on a visual journey, inviting the viewer to join a conversation between their respective visual languages, to consider various meanings, sensations, and symbolisms of crossing water.