Estafania Puerta: The Ghost in the Hallway

Nina Johnson presents “The Ghost in the Hallway”, an exhibition of mixed-media works by Estafania Puerta that reimagines the concept of “carrier” both functionally and metaphorically. Using vessels, vitrines, and candle holders, Puerta explores how materials hold meaning and create symbolic value. Rooted in materiality, her practice incorporates organic and inorganic elements to construct a “poetics of transformation and translation”, engaging with ideas of boundaries and containment—what protects, displays, or holds something within.

Puerta describes the titular “ghost in the hallway” as a fleeting vision framed by the space, a metaphor for the ephemeral contained momentarily, like a tomb holds a spirit or a mouth holds language. This idea permeates the exhibition, where containment becomes a dynamic interplay of what emerges outward or draws viewers inward.

Key works include the “Bloom” series, wall-mounted pieces of aluminum leaf, paper pulp, and stained glass, enclosing cabinets of materials or drawings, and “Reproduction Question”, a coffee table with a vitrine of objects and text, viewable through a canvas sculpture. Inspired by reliquaries and sarcophagi, these works blend function, form, and narrative, creating layered worlds that evoke the timelessness of relics and the immediacy of invocation.

Puerta also transforms the Exhibition Library, incorporating candle holders into the shelving system, likening it to the organization of language. The space becomes both gallery and reliquary, bridging the material and spiritual realms. Her works transcend time, functioning as documents, relics, and invocations.