Press Release // the drop falls and Between lines breath

3S Artspace is pleased to announce two exhibitions, the drop falls by Elsie Kagan and Between lines and breath by Mina Kim, on view in the Gallery at 3S Artspace August 7 through September 27, 2026. An Opening Reception and Meet the Artist event will take place on Friday, August 7, from 5 – 8 p.m. Both the exhibits and reception are free and open to the public.

“Together, these exhibits spark conversation about technology, AI, and the enduring value of touch and process. Visitors will move between Elsie Kagan’s fluid, AI-informed landscapes and Mina Kim’s tactile, hand-wrought forms, encountering two different explorations of contemporary life,” said Beth Falconer, Executive Director of 3S Artspace.

Though distinct in medium and approach, both exhibitions investigate transformation through sustained, iterative processes. Kagan's paintings examine the evolving relationship between human creativity, artificial intelligence, and the natural world, while Kim's immersive sculptures and installations reflect on labor, migration, and the quiet accumulation of time.

the drop falls // Elsie Kagan
In the drop falls, Brooklyn-based painter Elsie Kagan uses landscapes as a site for climate anxiety, technological mediation, and historical art traditions to converge. Rather than depicting real locations, her oil painting landscapes build an ongoing dialogue between hand-painted abstraction and artificial intelligence.

Kagan begins with gestural paintings informed by observation, color, and the physical properties of paint, then photographs them and feeds the images into AI models. The resulting outputs become catalysts for subsequent paintings, creating a recursive process in which each work generates the conditions for the next. Water is both subject and metaphor throughout the exhibition: transparent, reflective, life-giving, and destructive.

The exhibition title comes from Virginia Woolf's The Waves, invoking cycles of creation and dissolution that mirror both natural systems and algorithmic processes. Through layered surfaces and vibrant color, Kagan considers how meaning can emerge through uncertainty, positioning her work within contemporary conversations surrounding landscape painting, machine intelligence, and the digital sublime.

Kagan has exhibited widely and participated in residencies including Vermont Studio Center, TSA Chicago, Residency Unlimited, and R.A.R.O. Madrid. Kagan is also the founder and executive director of Interlude Artist Residency, a nonprofit residency supporting artist parents.

Between lines and breath // Mina Kim
In Between lines and breath, multidisciplinary artist Mina Kim transforms humble domestic materials—thin wire salvaged from her father’s garage and plastic twist-ties from her mother’s kitchen drawer—into sculptural environments inviting viewers to slow down and experience the passage of time. Through thousands of repetitive gestures, twisting wire and binding materials by hand, Kim constructs porous sculptures that mimic both shelter and cage.

Born in Seoul and now based in New York, Kim's practice is informed by her experience immigrating to the United States and navigating the contrasting cultural expectations surrounding visibility, silence, and self-expression.

Rather than designing her works in advance, she allows form to emerge gradually through improvisation and sustained labor, making repetition and duration central materials of her practice.

“Mina’s work emphasizes the irreplaceable power of the human hand in our increasingly automated world,” said Beth Falconer.

Her installations will respond directly to the Gallery space, wrapping around or pressing against walls, while casting delicate shadows and merging sculpture with drawing. Her immersive works create spaces where quiet labor, memory, and human-scale time become visible.

Kim is currently pursuing an MFA in Installation and Sculpture at the School of Visual Arts in New York and holds a BFA from SVA. Her work has been exhibited at Rosewood Arts Center, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Carter Burden Gallery, CP Project Space, and SVA Flatiron Gallery, among others. She is a Department Nominee for the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship and will participate in the Kunstraum LLC Residency in 2026.

Together, the drop falls and Between lines and breath offer complementary perspectives on process, perception, and transformation, inviting viewers to consider how meaning accumulates through repetition, uncertainty, and sustained attention.

The exhibitions will be on view August 7 through September 27, 2026, at 3S Artspace, 319 Vaughan Street, Portsmouth, NH. Gallery admission is free.

Also on view at 3S Artspace, in the Lobby Gallery: Abundance, featuring works by Betsy Weisberg and Amy Green VanDeventer inspired by the landscapes and seasonal rhythms of the North Shore. Hand-built stoneware vessels are paired with sculpted botanical forms that reflect local harvests, native plants, and the coastal environment. On view August 1 - 31.

Supporting Event: 
In the Meantime: Art Making Alongside Machine Intelligence
Artist Talk w/ Elsie Kagan
Saturday, August 8
1 - 2:30pm
Free to attend (Suggested donation $5)
Learn more / RSVP

About 3S Artspace:
Curiosity. Creativity. Community.

Through the unique lens of contemporary arts experiences, 3S Artspace invites divergent perspectives and encourages lively discourse centered around issues of today.

The Gallery at 3S Artspace is an incubator of ideas, facilitator of original content, and is committed to presenting a diverse representation of contemporary visual artists. Each year the Gallery presents exhibitions that highlight unprecedented innovation across disciplines, celebrate artistic excellence, encourage lively discourse, and foster an unwavering appreciation for the vital role that art plays in our community. 3sarts.org