Trisha Donnelly’s cryptic works on paper at the Drawing Center in SoHo

Nearly 40 works by Trisha Donnelly — on paper, photographs, video and sculpture made over the last 25 years — are on view at the Drawing Center in SoHo in an exhibition curated by Olivia Shao. Donnelly, who is not broadly known for drawing, presents mostly untitled, often abstract sheets marked by sinuous ink lines and forms that suggest driftwood, bones, ragged textiles or ectoplasm.

One drawing, "hedm!" (2005), shows a cracklike form with golden ovals bearing letters that, backward, stand for the German phrase "Herr, Erbarme Dich Meiner!" ("My Lord, have mercy on me") — a phrase associated with Bach’s "St. Matthew Passion" and resembling lettering in Rudolf Koch’s "The Book of Signs." The show also includes a rectangular marble work scored with cryptic notches and photographs and a video of glowing orblike shapes.

An adjacent gallery, also curated by Shao, stages "Voice of Space: UFOs and Paranormal Phenomena" and includes a Donnelly drawing; another Donnelly work appears in that show's checklist while being listed for her own exhibition. The Drawing Center’s news statement for Donnelly’s show quotes the "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu, opening with the lines beginning "The unspeakable," and the gallery’s wall-label language for the neighboring show invokes terms such as alchemy, paranormal, energy fields, mysticism and specters.

The exhibition is dimly lit, largely without wall labels, and invites a contemplative response. Trisha Donnelly’s show is on view through Feb.

Key Topics

Culture, Trisha Donnelly, Drawing Center, Soho, Olivia Shao, Tao Te Ching