Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) presents Metopic Ridge, a solo exhibition by artist Eleanor Mahin Thorp. Thorp’s paintings take us on an immersive site visit to examine the Blue Ridge Mountains exploring stability and change, the seen and the hidden within rocks. Through her discerning gaze rocks are more than geological entities; Instead, they metamorphose into vessels of history and human connection. Drawing inspiration from the fascinating transformations depicted in Persian miniatures, Thorp traces the hidden figures and forms in the rocks. Her paintings reveal the duality of rocks’ existence as both a firm witness to time and a medium for that which is intangible.

Eleanor Mahin Thorp is an artist and educator living and working in Richmond, VA. Thorp approaches the subjects of her site visits through the lens of Persian animism, and constructs images of stone faces by searching for figures, words, animals, and forms embedded in the rock. Thorp received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, was a Hopper prize finalist, and is a 2023–2024 Visual Arts Fellow with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

This exhibition is curated by Tephra ICA’s 2023 ArtTable Curatorial Fellow Sandy Cheng and presented in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visual Arts Fellowship program.