Hard to Swallow
Acrylic, Rockite, plaster, water-slide decals
2026

Hard to Swallow uses pill forms borrowed from digital interface design to present final text exchanges from people no longer in my life. These messages carry side effects such as grief, comfort, anxiety, and relief long after they were sent. Informed by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s belief that we are defined by our actions, the work considers text messages as acts that outlast words and shape how relationships are remembered.

This piece was included in the group exhibition MOUTHFUL.

MOUTHFUL unearths echoes, rhymes, and dissonances across the past 50 years of cultural production. How and why do artists continue to turn to language as material? How and why do writers continue to turn towards visual practices to investigate language?  What sound does meaning make? What shapes do our mouths take? Curated by Vox Populi’s director, Blanche Brown, MOUTHFUL picks up these familiar questions and shakes them out: see what falls though May 1- June 14th 2026

Talk of the Town is a live, participatory performance masquerading as a small-town office where handling gossip is treated like a public service.

Audience members become clients, stepping into a judgment-free, affirming, and slightly bureaucratic system where they can drop off a secret, ask for help crafting a rumor, decipher confusing social intel, or decide whether a piece of gossip should be released into circulation or sealed away forever in the Hindsight Capsule.

Staffed by Operators who blend care, camp, and administrative seriousness, Talk of the Town explores how stories move through communities, how intimacy is built through hearsay, and how gossip can function as connection rather than harm. Every interaction is tenderly handled, expertly embellished, and routed with intention.

This work was presented as a 3-hour durational performance at Icebox Project Space in December 2025, as part of Show Town.

Created by Lea Devon Sorrentino
Performers: Rose Luardo, Shannon Brooks, Emmett Wilson & Lea Devon Sorrentino

Teach Me to Ski

Video and sculptural installation, 2025
Curated into This too is a Threshold
Automat Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Many journeys start with a parent teaching a child how to ride a bike, cast a line, or balance on skis. But not every parent knows how to teach, even when they have the talent themselves. My mother was a professional bodybuilder at her best and an overall impressive athlete, especially a water skier. She had a natural strength and grace that could draw applause from anyone watching her off the back of a boat. I always wanted to learn to ski on one ski, like she could, but that skill never transferred to me. Teaching, nurturing, and parenting were not her instincts. Our relationship was more like friends, or even fan and performer, rather than parent and child. Even now, years after her passing, I often speak about her incredible ability, allowing the myth to live on that she taught me to ski. I have never been able to ski on one ski. I have never skied with my mom. It’s just Nancy lore.

The sculptural component of Teach Me to Ski is a fictionalized memory of what it might have looked like if we had shared that experience. The installation presents two singular skis, hers and mine, positioned as if we are riding side by side. From the pedestal extends a taut ski rope, anchored to a video that unfolds like an instructional guide with step-by-step lessons on how to slalom water ski. The video interlaces mechanical explanations of the sport with fragmented home movies of us separately skiing, culminating in a digitally constructed scene where we finally appear to ski together.

This piece is an idealized memory of a connection I have always wanted to have with my mother but will never achieve.

I chose to pursue Teach Me to Ski in response to the exhibition’s focus on the hero’s journey because I have spent years conjuring my own myth of my mother—the strong and athletic champion—to give myself a story about her that isn’t rooted in her sadness or decline. Her athleticism became my way to rewrite her life as an epic. I keep telling that story because it is easier to celebrate her as a water-skiing legend than to acknowledge the disappointment of her lost potential or the ache of wanting to inherit something she never had the capacity to give.

Through sculpture and video, Teach Me to Ski becomes both an imagined collaboration and an act of repair. It is an attempt to collapse time and fill an unteachable gap: to construct the memory of a lesson that never took place and to finally learn from her, if only in myth.

Pressed for Help is a piece created for the group show beg. barter. steal. which brings together the diverse practices of Vox Populi artist members as they play with the literal and symbolic meanings of 'begging, bartering, and stealing' in capitalism, exploring a wide range of lenses from meditations on exchange of time, labor, and environment, to mythological theft in fairy tales, trickster archetypes, and the magickal origins of money.

Pressed for Help represents how commerce, for better or worse, has been a way for people to identify their goods and services as a demarcation of success. The ability to go to a fast-casual restaurant, purchase an expensive coffee drink or even run to a big-box store to pick up necessities, like deodorant or razors, are all ways that indicate winning within capitalism. For better or worse these experiences demonstrate the exchange of time and freedom lost through work with some kind of perceived achievement. As late-stage capitalism continues to roar, even the small pleasures or slight security the negotiation of work provided is slowly slipping away. The days of comfortably going to a TGI Fridays have disappeared. Even going to Target or CVS to quickly buy deodorant has become a demoralizing experience of begging an underpaid and scarce employee to unlock a cabinet filled with basic necessities. 

The accumulation of these losses are akin to thousands of paper cuts that have now become deep wounds. Most Americans are scarred by the callousness of the once euphoric, though pacifying, experience of commerce. This confrontation is fueling the right radicalism, division and scarcity felt across the country. Ultimately, the constant degradation of having to watch our basic necessities be locked away in plastic prisons because of corporate fear that those of us most impacted by the losing game of capitalism might steal them has slowly worn away our humanity. 

Maybe, Somday is a 1min looping video of an anonymous beige figure of a woman moves through the repetitive motions of daily life—waking up, going to work, making dinner, reading before bed. Interwoven with these scenes are her daydreams of escaping to other worlds, such as being on a beach, called by the ocean. The piece reflects on the cyclical nature of everyday existence, the societal expectations placed on women, and a deep yearning to return to a space where one can exist without being perceived.

Ticker Tape Tedium is a fictitious world in which I have been rewarded for conquering all of my mounting daily tasks. To communicate this new found success over never-ending, tedious chores I included various celebratory sculptures and wall pieces. From sports pennants printed with small victories like being on-time and folding clean laundry, to daily trophies proclaiming the successful completion of each day, all the way to a six floor and inflatable parade floats that cascade through the gallery. The parade is built with airbrushed paper mache objects that represent the six different themes found on the pennants. The space is a primary color explosion that at first glance feels like a celebration until a deeper inspection shows incessant repetition of routine through manufactured reproductions, false claims of triumph printed on ribbons and awards and large inflatable cartoon bombs hovering over the parade with each fuse getting closer and closer to explosion.

Embrace. Release. Surrender: A Self-Care Support System is a transformative journey that navigates commercialized self-care led by artists Kitty Rauth and Lea Devon Sorrentino. Through this immersive experience potential "recruiters" participate in creative exercises, and role playing that encourages the audience to reflect on never ending self-betterment in a response to structural oppression. Together, we'll investigate the relentless pursuit of external success and redefine our understanding of genuine well-being. Amidst our reflections, we'll confront the notion of mortality by recognizing life's impermanence. Let us cope with being GOOPed and lead one another through self-care and self-control.

The act of moving your hand up and down in the wind while sticking it out of a car window is a simple yet effective method for eliciting calm and relaxation. It’s a technique that has been discovered and popularized by Lea Devon Sorrentino. I’ve since developed a prototype for people to experience BreezeRiding® that simulates the experience, constructed with found objects like a car door freestanding with a welded frame and a branded fan to simulate the wind. BreezeRider® has recently been featured in the group exhibition, Mother Mold show at the NARS foundation, and includes illustrated instructions on how to interact with the prototype. The piece also includes a design patent that has been submitted to the US Patent office where I claim ownership of the idea and hope to share the soothing benefits of this simple yet powerful technique with the world.

Nature is calling, or is it, emailing? Now that workers are no longer tethered to desks it was only a matter of time until nature evolved to sustain their mobility. In response to the ever-growing group of digital nomads, the earth has sprung forth with organic power strips, USB ports, and other helpful office devices. Finally! Mother nature is ready for us all to achieve the illusive work-life balance.

Excavated from national parks, lush forests and rocky shores these unique work companions are now amassed into their first-ever natural history exhibit, Remote Work. Delve into this important collection that encapsulates the benefits of constant productivity. Explore the phenomena of what happened as humans advocated to work from anywhere, instead of demanding to work less.

The Pain of Perfect is a multi-media installation that combines video with found and made objects on a movable pedestal. Three videos, four to five minutes in length, play on loop on either side of the display. Each video is of a fictional online influencer that provides habits and rules to reach a state of perfection. The dialogue is derived from actual advice found in the most watched Youtube influencer videos on self-help that has been exaggerated. Situated on each side of the framed screens are self-help books from around the Glen Foerd mansion. Adorned on the side of the pedestal are resin casted commemorative items, similar to items found within the mansion, to celebrate the arrival of the fictional Baroness.

American culture has an obsession with exceptionalism and perfectionism– achieving financial or social success within our society is deemed as inherently good. The obsession with perfection is steeped in capitalism and structural oppression. Not achieving perfection is used to make people feel unworthy of support, care and basic needs. Not being perfect leads to unhealthy productivity, fatphobia, white supremacy and is now fueling a new culture of commercialized self-help.

The incessant need to be exceptional never ends. Moving through the rungs of the American dream comes with new unobtainable plateaus of perfection. This is evident even within the walls of the Glen Foerd Mansion, a home crafted for the wealthy and perceptually perfect. The bookshelves within the mansion are scattered with self-help books– dieting, beauty, manners, religion, professionalism. Even in a position of financial and social power, the people who lived here still believed they were not as perfect as they should be.

She's Gone All Out: This 6x6x8ft mixed media installation contains a constructed platform reminiscence of a pen for race horse winners. The trophy case in the middle adorns ribbons, sashes, a horseshoe made of fresh black roses and a looping video. Within the video is a fictionalized version of myself winning an ambiguous award expressing excitement while trying to hold back dread. A blanket with fringe and tassels is draped across the trophy case. Thousands of participation ribbons with past “accomplishments” like getting married, having a stable job, being reliable and a survivor, weigh down on the blanket, dragging and nagging at the supposed celebration. In the video I use a camp aesthetic to ease the audience into uncomfortable but familiar thoughts about trying to achieve success. The video uses humor as a connecting point for the audience to relate to the character’s emotions and reflect on how they might mirror their own.

Now you can own a piece of history with your very own COVID-19 commemorative plates! You can remember this special time forever with these priceless works of art that present Dr. Fauci’s calm demeanor and subtle disappointment, the epic Cuomo Brothers floating above iconic scenes from New York's devastation, and who would forget all of the hobbies Americans adopted because of the sheer boredom of isolation.

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Historic Pandemic Plates is a parody piece of collectable plates to commemorate the impact of the pandemic and late stage capitalism. At the beginning of the pandemic content like Tiger King and platforms like TikTok became kitsch distraction to what is now a global devastation. This video piece is an uncanny informercial to highlight the beginning stages of the pandemic and our relationship to objects to represent moments and memories.

Professional By Name is a mixed media triptych about the complexities of professionalism. The piece comically presents the competition and insecurities felt trying to maintain a conceptual artistic practice. Each 3ft X 4ft panel is comprised of both found and made objects that represent business culture. The exaggerated name plaques, normally reserved for name and title only, include more vulnerable text as the plaques get larger and move from manufactured to handmade. The inclusion of soft lighted lamps and succulent plants are reactions to online advice columns about how to show more personality in the workplace.

This work was created at the Wassaic Project residency.

Do you have the feeling like something is wrong, missing, uncomfortable, moving to fast, moving to slow, overwhelming, awkward, misunderstood, kinda lonely, too crowded, out of control, too good to be true, out of reach, beneath you, above you, dried up, dumb, out smarting you, frustrating, confusing, obvious, a train wreck, too close to perfect, not perfect enough, kind of ugly, boring, over before it began, disheartening, less than what is appears, too good to be true, spoiling the mood, awful, sickening, broken, hard to love, kind of off or just the worst?

Are you trying to find a way to start feeling like you are winning while you constantly lose? Great!

You Need Help is a series of training videos aiming to get your life seemingly back on track!

Ceramics: Without Ceramics is an argument concerning what constitutes Fine Art, especially in the case of non-manufactured pottery, is the art found in the process and the intention, or in the object that is left behind? Through a sculptural installation, Ceramics: Without Ceramics intends to generate a conversation about the significance of the “object.” If an object has no monetary value and exists without functionality can the piece be accepted as Art?

Becoming Baroness is an exploration of identity, class, and status through the lens of the television show “The Real Housewives”

Real Truths: Pop Culture Edition is a digital performance project that took place over Facebook Live Stream and Periscope. The desire to fit-in shapes us as deeply as does the want to be independent. There are many instances where people are confronted with being honest at the risk of being vulnerable. These series of videos are an accumulation of rectifying moments where I have lied about in my past that expose my desire to belong.