Botanicals: A group salon about this classical and natural subject matter

botanicals: a group salon about this classical and natural subject matter

Brooklyn, NY — Gallery 913 is pleased to present Botanicals, a group salon featuring works by Hobart Pao and Betta Malagon. Running from 16 mars through 30 avr 2026, the exhibition takes its name from one of painting's oldest traditions and promptly subverts it.

Visitors expecting the conventional botanical will find something stranger and more rewarding: a cactus masterpiece, vessels emptied of their contents, landscapes rendered electric through digital alchemy, and a series of apple logo paintings that are botanical only in name. The Macintosh, after all, is a variety of apple.

Pao's contributions span acrylic painting, archival digital photography, and conceptual readymades. His "Partition of Unity" — four blue circles on a yellow field above a terracotta horizon — hovers at the threshold between landscape and abstraction, between the mathematical and the painterly. His "iMac, Jade" confronts the viewer with a void so glossy it reads as a screen. His "Tim" series — small abstracted apple logos in Midnight, Cotton Candy, Bubblegum, Mustard, Peach, and Lavender — interrogate the algorithmic erasure of individual identity in the pursuit of societal acceptance. He ponders whether the residue is itself empty.

Malagon brings his own multidisciplinary sensibilities to the salon, expanding the show's investigation of what is natural, what is named, and what quietly contains multitudes. Malagon is a Colombian-Ukrainian Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist. He created oil pastel paintings of an apricot, a Ukrainian summer staple, and a plátano, a Colombian culinary staple, because he loves eating them.

The private opening reception will be held on lundi, 16 mars at 18:30. Visits by appointment through 30 avr 2026.

Gallery 913 is located at 9108 3rd Avenue, Apt 3F, Brooklyn, NY 11209. The gallery's mission is simple: bring art closer to humanity, both to the artists and the viewer-participants. Artists keep 70% of sales. No fees, ever.

For more information, images, or to schedule an interview, contact:

Hobart Pao
Director, Duality Industries
(917)-657-6121
Book a visit: dualityindustries.art
Contact: dualityindustries@gmail.com
Instagram: @gallery_913, @dualityindustries