extraORDINARY things

May 7 – June 17, 2026

What do household objects reveal about us—our histories, our domestic lives, and identities.

The exhibition extraORDINARY things brings together four artists who elevate everyday objects, transforming personal domestic items into vessels of memory, metaphor, and meaning. From photographic series and altered appliances to encased heirlooms and fractured porcelain, artists Qingjun Huang, Carole Kunstadt, Cheryl R. Riley, and Rob Strati elevate the extra ordinary into the extraordinary–disrupting function and sparking reflection. These objects—sometimes precious or inherited clutter—are recontextualized as anthropological specimens, bearing silent witness to lives lived, roles played, and stories passed down. The exhibition asks, When does an object stop serving us, and when does it begin defining us? At what point do ordinary things become art?

Curated by Ellen Hawley

Qingjun Huang

Carole Kunstadt

Cheryl R. Riley

Rob Strati