July 3rd - August 17th, 2025

 Call Me Superstitious 

Opening Reception: First Thursday, July 3, 5-8PM
Second Reception: First Thursday, August 7, 5-8PM
Gallery Hours: By Appointment on Saturdays, 12-3PM


Specialist presents Call Me Superstitious, new work by Carly Sheehan

The works in Call Me Superstitious are embedded with flowers given by friends and past lovers, gloves left behind in the studio, zip ties cut from what they held, bingo cards from a summer spent hoping to win. The residue of lived experience is woven into the structure. These works are about cracks, both physical and emotional: in the systems, in the grids, in the hearts, in the sidewalks—the ones we were told to step over.

These works don’t avoid the cracks, but notice what gathers inside them. Moss. Debris. Wishes. Grief that doesn’t fit neatly into stages. Superstition becomes a form of care; not logical, but comforting. We pull petals from flowers hoping for answers. We step carefully to protect our mothers. We knock wood. We tuck things into paint to try and remember.

The works push off the wall with steel arms, stand upright, and have soft interiors. They’re built from the materials we use to make homes: memory foam, carpet padding, thresholds, and barriers, embedded with notes on how to stay safe there. Objects that once brought comfort, served a purpose, or offered a warning. 

Now, these surfaces echo pavement, concrete, rebar, skin, Play-Doh, static screens brought to life through accumulative textures and marks. Kneading, patching, mending—returning, returning, returning. They live as residue and record. They are generous. They hold secrets. They offer a space to consider what it means to preserve something, not forever, but for now.

Carly Sheehan (b. 1992, Massachusetts) is a painter and educator based in Seattle. She holds an MFA in Painting from the Yale School of Art (2020) and a BFA in Art Education and Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2014). Sheehan is a full-time lecturer in the Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking Department at the University of Washington. Her work has been exhibited in grassroots and artist-run spaces including Triangle Projects and North Loop West in Los Angeles. In 2024, she joined the artist team at Specialist Gallery, where she contributes to organizing exhibitions.