GROUNDED ATTENTION

Erin Mallea and Ally Messer

Runs / March 6 – 29, 2026

Reception / Friday, March 6, 6–9 PM

Artist Talk / Sunday, March 29, 2–3PM

Hours: Sat-Sun from 2-6 PM

This March, Grizzly Grizzly invites viewers to lower their gaze and attune to the living and nonliving worlds we often overlook. Grounded Attention pairs work by Erin Mallea and Ally Messer, whose practices consider what human-centered society routinely ignores. Through sculpture and installation, the exhibition brings together industrial remnants and heavy metals with flora- and fauna-derived materials such as wool and handmade paper embedded with seeds. Amid escalating global ecological crisis, both artists propose sustained observation and care as a way to reconsider our relationship to the natural world and the consequences of our collective decisions.

Erin Mallea examines constructions of culture and nature, land and time, as entry points into contemporary social, political, and environmental conditions. Her hanging installation Condition Report assembles tiny found and treated materials that dangle from secondhand chains, tracing networks shaped by extraction and industry. Plastic nurdles and polyurethane foam were collected from the Ohio River downstream of the Shell Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, PA. Referencing regional steel waste once regularly dumped into landfills now occupied by subdivisions and defunct malls, the polished and patinated bronze and aluminum slag are treated with the care typically reserved for precious metals. Mallea’s dense, brambly web rewards those who take a slow, close look. 

Ally Messer practices slow, repetitive processes such as needle-felting, stop-motion animation, and paper mӑché, that cultivate attentiveness. Hope is a Choice We Make Together is an evolving, shapeshifting spiral that invites the viewers to take biodegradable paper seed pods filled with keystone plant seeds to plant in the spring. Materials sourced from sheep and trees connect the work to communities of flora and fauna. Her human-sized carrot creature, Entwined[artifact], engages a playful narrative of interspecies harmony, contrasting animal-derived fiber with vegetal form. By felting individual fibers into a stronger whole, Messer foregrounds solidarity and reciprocity, suggesting that nonhuman species can teach forms of care in a fractured world. She hopes that if we look closely, we might see the magical, queer, complex connections between us all. 

Through labor-intensive fiber work, nurdle collecting, and slag patination, Grounded Attention asserts care as a form of value. 

Artist Bios:

Erin Mallea works across sculpture, photography, video and print. Her practice is grounded in place-based research and collaborations with partners outside traditional art spaces, including biologists, historians, neighbors, community radio producers, and environmental justice activists. Mallea  has exhibited at venues including Laband Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Miller ICA, Pittsburgh, PA; A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Boise Art Museum, Boise, ID; and Melanie Flood Projects, Portland, OR. She produces Tree News, an experimental publication and event series focused on ecological perspectives in art and environmental justice. Mallea is an Assistant Professor of Art at Penn State School of Visual Arts.

Ally Messer is an interdisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia. She co-founded Laika Press, a cooperative, community-based print shop in her hometown of Reno, Nevada. Messer holds a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Nevada, Reno and an MFA in Fibers and Material Studies from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her work has been exhibited in at venues including Ice Box Project Space, Philadelphia PA; Big Ramp, Philadelphia PA; BFree Studio, La Jolla, CA; Palazzo San Giuseppe, Polignano a Mare, IT; Window Mine, Reno, NV; and the Holland Project, Reno, NV. She is a 2025 Illuminate the Arts Grant recipient and a current Fob Holder at Second State Press, Philadelphia. Messer teaches needle-felting, printmaking, bookbinding, and drawing at the Philadelphia Arts League and Fleisher Art Memorial.