Indigo+Madder + MARCH, NYC present Keeper
John Hee Taek Chae, Kuh Del Rosario, María Korol, Lucía Reissig, Aineki Traverso, and Thiang Uk,
curated by Maria Owen.
23 January - 28 February 2026
Indigo+Madder and MARCH are pleased to present Keeper, a group presentation of works by John Hee Taek Chae, Kuh Del Rosario, María Korol, Lucía Reissig, Aineki Traverso, and Thiang Uk, curated by Maria Owen.
In 1979, feminist author and journalist Elizabeth Fisher introduced what is known as Carrier Bag Theory, proposing that “the first cultural device was probably a recipient.” Up until that point, it was commonly accepted in many mainstream Western discourse that the first human-made tools were objects of force: an axe to cut, a hammer to strike. Fisher’s work argued otherwise, identifying these first technologies as vessels for collection: instruments to contain water or berries, or to carry a precious child. The theory was passionately adopted and popularized by science fiction author Ursula Le Guin, whose essay, “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (1986) applied Fisher’s philosophy to writing, explaining that the novel is commonly overtaken by a hero, for it is much easier to write a story of conflict and finite action than of the flow of energy and ideas. Yet, as Le Guin reminded us, “Whoever said writing a novel was easy?”
Keeper seeks out these alternative approaches to art-making, presenting works that intentionally engage with multiple realities and acting as recipients for the nourishing thoughts and impulses of their makers. As Le Guin proposed that, “the natural, proper, fitting shape of the novel might be that of a sack, a bag. A book holds words. Words hold things,” this exhibition adopts the view that an artwork may too be a bag, a container holding imagery, strokes and gestures, and thus, meaning.
Dug from the banks of the Bow River, Kuh Del Rosario’s clay tablets chronicle ancient Filipino myths alongside the artist’s adaptation from life in Manila to Calgary, contemplating physical barriers as well as those of language, culture, and memory. Similarly drawing from ancestry and movement across time and space, brushstrokes accumulate with intensity in Thiang Uk’s paintings. Motifs of commemoration and constancy signal across continents and philosophies.
In Horizon, Aineki Traverso strings together fragments of faces and forms in
a sensorial echo. Intended to meet the viewer at eye-level, the frames invite movement as one feeds into the next. María Korol’s Tango Trap depicts stories from her native Buenos Aires and current home of Atlanta through the fusion of environmental and musical aesthetics, forming an object that is both archive and imaginary. Archetypical narratives play out in her drawings, forming an alternative bestiary.
The works presented do not seek to convince nor claim. Rather, each puts forth a constellation of experiences, beliefs, and aspirations; meaning is created through relative tension. Working across time and continents, the artists of Keeper transcend categorization. They share a reverence for inherited mythology and land-based narratives, citing and questioning histories that warp and expand the status quo. Thus, uniquely positioned to map alternative origins, they make sense of the expansive present by gathering varied elements, each work of art a collection of coexisting cycles and truths.
SELECTED WORKS
INSTALLATION VIEWS
Thiang Uk (b. 1993, Hakha, Myanmar) lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He holds an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art (Baltimore, MD, USA) and a BFA from Hunter College (New York, NY, USA), and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan, ME, USA) in 2023. Uk’s solo exhibitions include Middle Distance at art hall (Baltimore, MD, USA), Breathing Surfaces at Silber Art Gallery, Goucher College (Towson, MD, USA), and Shadow’s Edge at Bureau (New York, NY, USA). Uk’s work is held in the collection of the Olivia Foundation (Mexico City, Mexico).
Kuh Del Rosario is a visual artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, Quebec. Born in Manila, Philippines, she immigrated to Calgary, Alberta, where she earned a BFA in Painting from the Alberta College of Art and Design before completing an MFA in Sculpture and Ceramics at Concordia University. Recent solo exhibitions include na dadaanan at Badlands Art Department (Drumheller, Alberta, Canada) and An Unhusked Grain of Rice Fills the Whole House at B-312 (Montréal, Quebec, Canada). She is currently an artist-in-residence at Fonderie Darling (2023–26), supported by the Ouellette Family Foundation.
Lucía Reissig (b. 1994, Buenos Aires, Argentina) began her artistic training in artist-run spaces, eventually earning her MFA in Sculpture from Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York) in 2024. Solo exhibitions include Glossary at mimo (Brooklyn, NY, USA) in 2025, 287.5 kilos at Móvil (Buenos Aires, Argentina) in 2023, Todo estaba sucio (with Marisa Agri) at Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno de Mendoza (Mendoza, Argentina), and El trabajo invisible at Selvanegra Galería (Buenos Aires, Argentina) in 2018. Reissig has participated in group exhibitions at Museo de la Memoria (Santiago, Chile), Mendes Wood DM (Germantown, NY, USA), Centro Cultural de España (Buenos Aires, Argentina), and Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina), among others. Reissig lives and works in New York City.
John Hee Taek Chae received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2010 and his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. His previous solo exhibitions include Hallucination at D. D. D. D. (New York, NY, USA), A Dark and Bloody Ground at Institute 193 (Lexington, KY, USA), Shed Your Eyes at MARCH (New York, NY, USA), and Make. Believe. at MOCA Jacksonville (Jacksonville, FL, USA), among others. He has participated in group exhibitions at Amanita (New York, NY, USA), Asia Society Texas (Houston, TX, USA), The Carnegie (Covington, KY), and Visual Arts Center of Richmond, (Richmond, VA, USA) among others. He was awarded the MacDowell Fellowship in 2021 and was a Yaddo Fellow in 2022.
To request a catalogue or receive further information, please get in touch: info@indigoplusmadder.com
Field Recordings, 2025
Used denim, glazed ceramics, wax, chicle, shist, iron oxide, crushed oyster shells, hydrostone, indigo, dried flora and vegetable cuttings, charcoal
14 x 14 x 1/2 inches
35.5 x 35.5 x 1.25 cm