New Exhibit: extraORDINARY things

The exhibition extraORDINARY things brings together four artists who elevate everyday objects, transforming personal domestic items into vessels of memory, metaphor, and meaning. From photographic series and altered appliances to encased heirlooms and fractured porcelain, artists Qingjun Huang, Carole Kunstadt, Cheryl R. Riley, and Rob Strati reframe the familiar–disrupting function and inviting reflection on how objects shape identity and cultural memory.

These objects—sometimes precious, sometimes inherited clutter—are recontextualized as anthropological specimens, bearing witness to lives lived, roles played, and stories passed down. In an era defined by consumption and rapid change, the exhibition considers the domestic object as both archive and artifact.

Curated by Ellen Hawley, the exhibition asks: When does an object
stop serving us–and begin defining us? At what point do ordinary things become art?

Please join us in the gallery for an opening reception Thursday, May 7, 6-8 pm.

Featured Artists:

Qingjun Huang, born in Beijing and now based in Illinois, has spent more than 30 years photographing people alongside their belongings in his ongoing series Family Stuff. Documenting communities navigating rapid social change–from rural China to the American Midwest— Huang offers a coss-cultural lens on identity shaped by possessions.

Carole Kunstadt’s sculptural works reference antique irons, deconstructed books, and music manuscripts–including references to the 1791 writings of British reformer, educator, and feminist Hannah More. Known for her Pressing On series, Kunstadt explores the female experience within the domestic realm. By transforming tools of labor into sculpture, she recasts them as symbols of resilience and intellect. Fragments of paper, lace, and linen connect the worlds of household work and literary thought. Kunstadt also pays homage to her own family’s early beginnings of lacework in New York’s Garment District.

Cheryl R. Riley’s Transcendence Preserved presents everyday objects as tributes to her ancestors’ ability to survive, thrive, and even excel. Vintage luggage, a record player, and a rotary telephone are sealed in custom vinyl slipcovers and accented with gold paint marking the places where hands once
touched them. A stack of leather suitcases honor those who traveled north during the Great Migration, linking intimate family history to a broader American story.

Rob Strati’s ongoing Fragmented series incorporates broken early 20th-century heirloom porcelain plates. Drawing from classic transferware motifs, Strati adds hand-rendered interventions that set windmills spinning, send racehorses and their jockeys lunging beyond the finish line, and steer three-masted ships
defiantly off course. He releases traditional serviceware from the confines of the china cabinet and brings it into a contemporary context, inviting viewers to reconsider nostalgia and decorative tradition.

Events:
Artists Talk: Sunday, May 17, at 2 pm
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 7, 6-8 pm

extraORDINARY things runs from May 7 – June 17, 2026.

The Flinn Gallery is a nonprofit organization sponsored by Friends of Greenwich Library. All works are for sale. The Gallery welcomes visitors daily Monday through Saturday,10 am-5 pm (Thursday until 8pm), and Sunday, 1-5 pm.