Group Show Art Opening: You Can Cut All the Flowers, but You Cannot Keep Spring From Coming

You Can Cut All the Flowers, but You Cannot Keep Spring From Coming is Third Door Brooklyn’s first group art exhibition, inspired by a widely shared line of hope and resistance often attributed to the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The exhibition reflects on what cannot be taken away.

The exhibition emerges in a time marked by political turmoil, ongoing genocide, climate crisis, and profound collective grief. Digital spaces increasingly isolate us within our own belief systems, making empathy and connection more difficult. In the face of such loss and urgency, the question arises of what role art can possibly play.

Art speaks to our inner lives. It alleviates stress and anxiety, expands empathy by offering perspectives beyond our own, and gives form to feelings that may otherwise remain unnamed. It creates space for reflection, mourning, and hope, often simultaneously. Art points to what we have been too busy to notice. It is one of the most enduring aspects of our humanity, and it persists even in the harshest conditions.

The works in this exhibition approach renewal through multiple forms and gestures. Mary Royall’s paintings of light draw attention to the immediate world around us, urging awareness of what is already present. Dipa Halder’s abstract works made with raw pigment and salt register traces of presence and absence. Devon Grime’s images of shared tables and meals reflect moments of gathering, nourishment, and the pleasure of being together. Sophie Kitching’s abstract florals on paper mark a return to painting after time away during the birth of her daughter. Gabrielle Guthrie’s split-panel abstract landscapes speak to a desire for connection despite distance and division.

Presented within a movement studio, the exhibition embodies Third Door Brooklyn’s commitment to creating an inclusive community space where creativity is accessible to all. Third Door Brooklyn holds that art is essential to human flourishing, not a luxury, but a vital expression of our shared humanity. Creating and experiencing art in community fosters connection, growth, and resilience, and is something that cannot be taken away.

You Can Cut All the Flowers, but You Cannot Stop Spring From Coming unfolds from winter into spring, inviting reflection on what persists even through the harshness of winter: the light, the air, the ground, and the people around us who remain a part of us.