Atlantic Works Gallery
Exhibition Dates: March 7 – 28, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 3–6 PM
Third Thursday Artist Talk & Reception:Thursday, March 19, 6–9 PM
Free and open to the public
Atlantic Works Gallery
80 Border Street, Ground Floor
East Boston, MA 02128
Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays, 2–6 PM, or by appointment
Contact: contact@atlanticworks.org
Atlantic Works Gallery is thrilled to announce SMALL VEIN, a duo exhibition showcasing the newest work by artists Leigh Hall and Duygu Aytaç.
Leigh Hall grew up near Atlanta, Georgia. She has been creating large-scale drawings using black masking tape for a number of years. In this exhibition, Hall presents Forest Floor, one of her newest works from this practice, depicting the ground in the woods of the neighborhood where she grew up. Visible are pine needles, maple seeds, and leaf litter, along with other detritus. Hall started this series by working directly on walls at first, and has recently been using paper and other materials as a substrate to allow more flexibility and permanence in how her work is displayed. She also works in digital photography, and creates sculptures out of found objects. Hall moved to the Boston area in 1979, and has lived here since. She graduated from Massachusetts College of Art in 1984 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting.
Duygu Aytaç is a photographer from Turkey. In the last two years, her work has been shown in Panopticon Gallery, Emerson Contemporary, New Bedford Art Museum, and Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts among others. In Small Vein, Aytaç will be exhibiting recent work from her project Ankara 1974, connecting a piece of her family history to the use of wrongful imprisonment as a political tool in Turkey today. “There is a certain kind of hollowness that comes with being ruled by a tyrant for decades but in a semblance of democracy. It is hard to describe with words. But some people don’t let that kind of despair deter them from coming together — in squares, in prayer, or in prison. Some people do not need to know if their efforts will yield immediate, quantifiable results: in protest, in studio, or in ritual.” Part of the show will include her collaboration with members of the March 19 Platform, a small group of Turkish diaspora women in Boston organizing protests against the unlawful imprisonment of elected mayors in Turkey. Aytaç herself immigrated to the United States in 2015, and has lived in Boston since. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
