Helina Metaferia: Syntropy

Interdisciplinary artist Helina Metaferia will unveil Syntropy, a solo exhibition at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Brookline, MA, opening on Friday, November 21 and on view through December 20, 2025. The solo show, which is the artist's second with the gallery, includes new collages that incorporate painted elements, as well as sculptures, printmaking, and textile art. The exhibition's title refers to the natural order for complex systems to organize smaller parts toward larger interdependent ecosystems, the counterpart to entropy. Inspired by the phenomenology of the term when applied toward social uprisings, Metaferia’s work in the exhibition offers a life-enhancing rebuttal to the disorienting confusion found in oppressive, authoritarian systems. She constructs art objects out of the archival relics of activism, foregrounding the often overlooked labor of women of color in social movements, allowing organizing to serve as both a creative and political tool of support.

The exhibition’s opening reception will be on Friday, November 21 from 5-8pm. It includes a preview of a short documentary film adaptation of Metaferia's By Way of Revolution series, screened from 5-6pm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre , which is across the street from the gallery. Directed by Alex Bledsoe of Breaktide Productions, the film follows Metaferia over a year of making her work in New York and California, and interviews women of color activists who have appeared in Metaferia’s art. The film preview will be followed by a discussion between Metaferia and Project for Empty Space co-founder and curator Jasmine Wahi, who has worked with the artist for the last two years via an artist residency, solo exhibition, and public art project. A reception for the exhibition at Praise Shadows Gallery will be held from 6-8pm following the film and discussion program.