"I think creating through lived experience is the only way I know how to speak about any larger issue in the world," Cheyenne Julien told us years ago in a feature in our print edition. "My practice is healing in some ways, and nerve-racking in others; so I don’t know if therapeutic is the right word." In a year of turmoil, hiatus, urgency and almost near nerve-rackingly stillness, Julien's newest body of work speaks to all the feelings of 2020 through the lens and guise of exactly how she contemplated her work years before. 

What Phantom Gates and Falling Homes does, which is the name of Julien’s first solo exhibition with Chapter NY, on view through October 11, 2020, is showcase the moments in-between the struggle for meaning. These are daily life obersvations, some with joy, others with somberness, but it feels like a city with people in transition and perhaps nowhere to go. Black Out may feature a summer scene of kids playing in a sprouting fire hydrant, and Dead doesn’t change and outdoors is here to stay is a classic yet elegant still life juxtaposing nature and urban development. This is city life but its most definitely a view of NY that is both nostalgic and absolutely of the moment. Julien has returned, and she has a body of work with something to say about where we are right now. —Evan Pricco