NYC Exhibition Features Work by Studio Art Professor Rudy Shepherd
Forms of Belonging: Rudy Shepherd, Samuel Nnorom, and Justin Lim
An exhibition exploring material, identity, and the spaces we inhabit
Kates-Ferri Projects is proud to announce Forms of Belonging. Bringing together three distinct artistic practices, this group exhibition presents the work of Rudy Shepherd, Samuel Nnorom, and Justin Lim, artists whose approaches to material, pattern, and space offer compelling perspectives on the ways we experience the world around us.
Working across ceramics, textile installation, and painting, the three artists transform familiar forms and environments into sites of contemplation. Though their practices differ in medium and sensibility, each artist invites viewers to look beyond the surface and consider what objects, patterns, and spaces can communicate in the absence of explicit narratives.
Rudy Shepherd works in ceramics, exploring the expressive possibilities of clay as a medium that holds both physical presence and conceptual weight. Through the shaping of form into “healing devices”, his work engages the relationship between material, object, and meaning, drawing attention to the tactile qualities and sculptural possibilities of ceramic practice.
Samuel Nnorom creates textile installations using African print fabrics, transforming recognizable patterns and vibrant materials into immersive sculptural compositions. Through the scale, repetition, and arrangement of textiles, Nnorom reimagines fabric as an architectural and spatial medium. His installations invite viewers to consider the cultural associations of pattern and the ways textiles can carry histories, identities, and collective memories into contemporary art spaces.
Justin Lim’s paintings depict interiors conspicuously absent of human figures. These unoccupied spaces become subjects in their own right, drawing attention to architecture, atmosphere, and the traces of human presence suggested through carefully observed environments. By withholding figures, Lim creates a sense of stillness and ambiguity, encouraging viewers to consider the psychological and emotional dimensions of spaces that appear ordinary yet remain open to interpretation.
Together, the artists offer three distinct ways of approaching presence and absence. Shepherd gives material a tangible sculptural form; Nnorom expands textile into an immersive environment; and Lim renders interior spaces as quiet, unoccupied worlds. Across these practices, material and space become more than settings or objects – they become active elements in how meaning is made and experienced.
Rather than presenting a singular narrative, the exhibition creates a dialogue between three artistic languages. Ceramics, African print textiles, and paintings of empty interiors converge to reveal unexpected connections between the physical and the psychological, the personal and the collective, and what is visible and what remains implied.
The exhibition invites audiences to slow down, attend to the details of material and composition, and consider how meaning can emerge through form, pattern, and the spaces we leave behind.
Artists: Rudy Shepherd, Samuel Nnorom, Justin Lim
Dates: November 5 – December 13, 2026
Venue: KATES-FERRI PROJECTS
Address: 561 Grand Street NYC 10002
Opening Reception: Friday, November 5th 5-8pm