The Hole is proud to present Night Vision, our second solo exhibition with Carolyn Salas and her first solo show in Los Angeles—a kind of homecoming for the Hollywood-born artist. The exhibition includes key works from her recent museum show at the NMSU Art Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico, alongside new stained wood inlay pieces and a site-specific freestanding sculpture for our gallery.

Salas’ practice sits somewhere between sculpture and spell. Inspired by ancient reliefs, caryatids, and sacred architecture, her work draws on a deep lineage of female form—but pushes it into new terrain. Her figures are fragmented, stylized, sometimes ghostlike. Rendered in carved wood, marble, or aluminum, they evoke Matisse cut-outs, Egyptian carvings, and the sensuous purity of Brancusi, while speaking in a distinctly contemporary, feminist language.

Many of the works begin as hand-drawn sketches or foam-core maquettes, then move through digital 3D renderings before being realized in aluminum and wood. Even with the use of industrial processes, the final objects retain a hand-wrought feel—unpolished edges, highlighted wood grain, and an intuitive sense of balance. Though she often uses color on surrounding walls and pedestals, Salas uses bright white frequently for her sculptures—not as purity, but as obliteration. That palette decision adds to the show’s tonal complexity: Night Vision is less about literal darkness and more about the night as psychic space, dream logic, subconscious navigation.

The installation transforms the gallery into a kind of modernist dreamscape. Works shift dramatically as you walk around them—flattened from one angle, activated by shadow the next. Her sculptures change the space, the architecture becomes part of the work’s choreography, and viewers become part of the piece’s unfolding. There’s a powerful vibe to Salas’ work—a word I hate to use but will try to explain. The mood is real: her installations are designed with a deep sense of atmosphere and emotional tone. There’s a designer’s taste and style, but also substance—psychic depth, feminist thought, and an intuitive sense of how materials hold memory and meaning.

New to this iteration are Salas’ stained maple wood inlay works: luminous compositions made from interlocking, cut wood shapes that evoke bodies, vessels, celestial symbols. There’s something sacred in their geometry, like spiritual diagrams or coded icons from an ancient system. The color pulls out the wood’s natural grain, while the smooth contours feel both handcrafted and futuristic. Unlike the screens and cutouts she has been known for, these new works can’t help but offer a sense of completeness, like the satisfaction of completing a puzzle. With the hundreds of small wood components coming together, filling her usual negative space, these works pursue fulfillment.

The exhibition grew out of a return to New Mexico, where Salas earned her BFA and first began building the sculptural language on view here. But in Los Angeles—her birthplace—the show finds new resonance. A mythic reentry! Night Vision continues a personal arc of looking back while building forward—translating ancient forms into contemporary architectures of feeling.

About the Artist:
Carolyn Salas was born in Hollywood, CA, and lives and works in Brooklyn and Upstate New York. She received her BFA in sculpture from the College of Santa Fe and her MFA from Hunter College. Her work has been exhibited widely at venues including The Hole (Five Ways to Reverse a Curse, 2022); the NMSU Art Museum, Las Cruces, NM; Berkshire Museum, MA; Torrance Art Museum, CA; Ever Gold, San Francisco; Páramo Gallery, Guadalajara; and MRS. Gallery, Queens, where she exhibits regularly. She has held residencies at the Abrons Art Center, NARS Foundation, Santa Fe Art Institute, Vermont Studio Center, and Blue Mountain Center.