Squatting in the Same River Twice

Gallery AF is pleased to present Squatting in the Same River Twice, a solo exhibition of Marina Claire, on view August 8th - 23rd, 2026. Marina’s welded paintings feature steel geometric forms in natural landscapes and alongside human bodies, often with welded steel jutting out from the canvas. Such works push against the dimensional constraints of the picture plane.

Have you ever seen a perfect tree or a perfect hand? The Greeks believed that every physical thing we encounter – including hands – has a perfect version of that thing existing somewhere in the cosmos. Marina’s sculptures and paintings play at the boundary between the real and the ideal, using geometric shapes and bodies to question how we make sense of how the world and our bodies are anything but perfect. The show’s title is a derivation of the Heraclitus quote “one cannot step in the same river twice” — because the individual is always changing, and so is the river, and so is the polyhedron, when freshly sculpted.

Please join us on Saturday, August 8th from 7pm - 11pm for the debut of this new series at Gallery AF, located at 2323 E Olympic Blvd. just South of the Arts District. This event will also include food vendors, a tattoo raffle for charity, and interactive sonic environments by musical artist Selfblind. Squatting in the Same River Twice will be on view by appointment through August 23rd.

Marina Claire is an LA-based visual artist working in metal, paint, and tattoos. The objects she makes — always imperfectly embodying perfection — ask viewers to drift within the gap between the non-physical, conceptual realm and our tangible, sensory experience. She holds degrees in Fine Arts and Philosophy from Parsons and Eugene Lang, is an MFA candidate at ArtCenter, and has exhibited work internationally.