Into the Whirlwind: a two-person exhibit at Kirkland Arts Center
Into the Whirlwind, a two-person exhibit of works by Tom Gormally and Malayka Gormally, exhibited at the Kirkland Arts Center in the summer of 2025. The exhibit featured Tom's sculptures and drawings with pointed, sometimes humorous, socio-political commentary, and Malayka's paintings of immigrants, past and present.
You can see images of the exhibition on this page: Kirkland Arts Center Gallery exhibition.
Video tour and discussion of the exhibit
Created by Jeremy Hurd-McKenney, Gallery Director, and Craig Hurd-McKenney, Grants & Marketing Coordinator.
Statements by the artists
Descending Storm
Tom: Descending Storm is my most recent sculpture. I trimmed our fig tree and used the branches to make tornado forms, representing the destructive power of storms in this era.
The fig tree symbolizes fertility, prosperity, health, knowledge, community, and abundance. Using the fig branches to build a destructive storm is like making a dove into a symbol of violence.
The storm is breaking the bonds between friends and family. When I see these divisions, I'm reminded of the importance of sharing and caring for each other.
Five Women on a Bench at Ellis Island, 1900
Malayka: I based my painting Five Women on a Bench at Ellis Island, 1900, on a photograph of immigrants at Ellis Island circa 1900, possibly by Lewis Wickes Hines.
I was honored to have this painting included in the 2022 group exhibition Migration at the Civic Museum of Palazzo della Penna, Perugia, Italy. The exhibition was a Seattle–Perugia sister city project.
Here Lies Lies
Tom: Another very recent sculpture of mine, Here Lies Lies, addresses disinformation within political discourse and the news media ecosystem.
Mother and Children at Ellis Island, Early 1990s
Malayka: I based my painting Mother and Children at Ellis Island, Early 1990s, on the 1905 photograph, Italian Family Seeking Lost Baggage, Ellis Island, by Lewis Wickes Hines. Lewis took 200+ photographs of immigrants coming through Ellis Island in New York Harbor between 1904 and 1909, the same period that my maternal grandparents came through Ellis Island, fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe.
Lewis Wickes Hine's purpose "was to show newcomers to the United States as dignified individuals rather than anonymous masses of foreigners, as the press frequently portrayed them."
I was honored to have this painting included in Made in America—An Immigrant Story, a 2024 exhibition at the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia. The U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies program produced the exhibit, and U.S. Ambassador Nathalie Rayes selected the works. Also available: exhibit Catalog.
Saint Oil Baron
Tom: My sculpture Saint Oil Baron was informed by my 2023 Civita Institute fellowship and residency in Italy and the religious elements in the churches in Rome, Civita di Bagnoregio, and Bagnoregio. Saint Oil Baron parodies altarpieces celebrating the lives of saints, subverting this form to ‘celebrate’ the lives of the oil barons reaping profits during accelerating climate change.
Saint Oil Baron was part of my 2023 solo exhibit Climate of Change, part of the Shunpike Storefronts Program, which is a temporary public art program in partnership with Amazon in Seattle, WA. Please see photos of the exhibit here. Saint Oil Baron was also included in the 2024 exhibition A Dreadful Beauty: History & Art from Gothic Pride Seattle at the Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA.
Woman in NYC Shirt Applying for United States Citizenship, With Help From a Volunteer
Malayka: The start of my project painting portraits of immigrants was a 2017 grant from 4Culture. As part of that project, I worked with a local office of the nonprofit International Rescue Committee; I photographed a citizen workshop where volunteers helped immigrants start their application for U.S. citizenship.
