Window Dressing LVI, Terra Goolsby: Soil Horizons

Exhibition Dates: September 14 - 21, 2026 (visible 24 hours/day) Artist Reception: Friday, September 18th, 8-10pm Soil Horizons is a collection of ceramic sculptures inspired by the plumed serpent or Quetzalcoatl, one of the most iconic and prominent figures in ancient Mesoamerican cultures. As a figure of duality—snake and bird, earth and sky, native and foreigner, Quetzalcoatl has served for centuries as a vessel for otherness, knowledge, and our connection to the cosmos and the past. While the works are rooted in traditional ceramic hand building, experimentation with earthy textures, ethereal tones, and thin feather-like forms, embody a new aesthetic assessment of Quetzalcoatl’s dualities. Quetzal, being the bird that the god’s feathers resemble, are vibrant green much like the green glaze applied to the surface of many of the works. Other pieces have periwinkle tones resembling the sky. Works with darker surfaces reference Quetzalcoatl’s twin often called Evening Star or Dark Heart of the Sky. The egg or pip shaped artwork is meant to be a seeding point while the long cylindrical form of the relief sculptures mimic a snake or ‘coatl’. A soil horizon is a layer of soil whose adjacent layers differ in color, texture, structure and composition, acting as a relative time referencing tool. While these layers mark chapters in earth’s time geologically, ceramics record our cultural histories, diligently remembering every gesture and mythological evolution. My new work aims to function as a site for remembering, reimagining, and collectively reckoning with the layered horizons of our identities and origins. Through this work, I honor ancestral craft and storylines, and contribute to the richer, more nuanced conversation about who we are and what we might become. Bio Terra Goolsby is a Mexican American sculptor who employs unique technical approaches to ceramics to produce works that connect pre-colonial mythologies and new aesthetic evaluations, addressing the relevance of indigenous cultural influence. Her practice is shaped by a transitory childhood spent between continents and the borderlands of the American Southwest. She earned an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was a Presidential Scholar. She also conducted independent research at Brown University with Gail Cohee, Department Head of Gender and Sexuality Studies, where she identified her obsession with the deconstruction of Mesoamerican and contemporary mythologies. Multiple residencies have shaped her career, including West Dean College of Sussex University in Chichester, England: Vermont Studio Center: and I-Park Foundation in New Hampshire. In addition to her status as a Presidential Scholar at RISD, Terra has received the Thantopolis Honorarium, Edward James Fellowship and Scholarship, Dimension Gallery Fellowship, and multiple grants. Her work has been exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions such as Dallas Contemporary, Umlauf Sculpture Museum and Garden, The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Ivester Contemporary and Anya Tish Gallery. She is one of the founders of Icosa Gallery.