EXHIBITION: Leigh Merrill
Lost Pine, Double Pine
LEIGH MERRILL
Friday, January 9, 2026 – Saturday, February 21, 2026
EXHIBITION PREVIEW NIGHT | Thursday, January 22, 6pm [6:30 talk kickoff]
FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK | Friday, February 6, 5-8pm
Lost Pine, 2023. Digital collage on Hahnemühle watercolor paper, 31 x 31 inches framed. Variation #2 of 3 + 1AP.
Candela is excited to begin the 2026 calendar year with two solo exhibitions using process to explore ideas of contemporary humanity.
In the front gallery, Dallas-based artist Leigh Merrill’s Lost Pine, Double Pine brings the viewer into an alternate universe of mysterious cotton candy colors and echoes of reality. The exhibition includes works from her series, Garden of Artificial Sugar and Thesaurus of Air, which utilize digital collage techniques to reshape perception of natural and urban landscapes.
Through a painterly system of consistent color and texture, lush vegetation and geometric storefronts stretch farther from our familiarity while growing closer to one another. Merrill’s meticulous digital collages highlight a friction between the simultaneous visual reverence and physical encroachment of humankind with the existing landscape:
Familiar elements such as the lawn, manicured and manipulated plants, and new buildings that mimic other eras and locations, reveal a culture of perpetual longing. The urban landscape is often a post-modern offering of architecture, simulating or referencing different periods or locations. This simulation reveals the desire for what is referenced, and the majority of our landscapes - built for the car and continuous growth – embody an aspirational forward momentum within their infrastructure. My photographs and videos seek out this longing and desire while echoing the cultural, historical, and perceptual forces that impact our experience of place.
Lost Pine, Double Pine
ARTIST TALK | THURSDAY, JANUARY 22
Doors at 6pm, talk kicks off at 6:30pm