Seeds Are
Little Brains

New Gallery is pleased to present Seeds Are Little Brains, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist Elise Rise. The exhibition opens on April 11, 2026, and continues through May 2, 2026. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 11, from 2 to 5 PM.

Recent research in plant neurobiology has shown that seeds and root systems process information, respond to environmental stimuli, and exhibit forms of decision-making. This work informs Rise’s broader exploration of intelligence as a continuum across kingdoms of life.

Rise’s paintings, rendered with meticulous detail, depict cross-sections of fruit: pomegranates halved to reveal their clustered arils, strawberries split to expose their porous interiors, tomatoes opened to their seed-filled chambers. Rendered at a scale and stillness that borders on the devotional, the ordinary fruit becomes something else entirely. Yet the works continually evoke the human body. Vascular branching recalls circulatory systems. Seed clusters suggest neural networks. Fibrous stalks resemble skeletal structures. The glistening, supple surfaces—wet, parted, abundant—carry an undeniable carnality, at once sacred and corporeal. Rise registers these correspondences with unflinching clarity, allowing the viewer to navigate the slippage between plant and flesh.

Across cultures, fruit has long served as a symbolic threshold for transformed consciousness: the forbidden fruit in Eden that awakened moral awareness and introduced mortality for Adam and Eve; the divine mango of wisdom that Ganesha claimed through cunning insight, granting him supreme knowledge; the pomegranate seeds Persephone consumed, binding her to the underworld and inaugurating the cycle of seasons, death, and rebirth.

Rise’s paintings build on these ancient foundations. Creation stories suggest that the consumption of fruit yields wisdom, often at the price of mortality or exile. The paintings reference these stories through the subject matter and the use of luminosity. Each work underscores her thesis that plants are the protobrains (the roots of intelligence), and that human intelligence and flesh have their deepest roots in seeds and soil. Our minds and bodies carry the echoes of these botanical origins; the mind is not an exception to nature but its most advanced iteration.

Elise Rise (b. 1993, Richmond, Virginia) lives and works in Brooklyn. She received her BA summa cum laude from Princeton University, with concentrations in Art & Archaeology and Visual Arts. Recent exhibitions include Blue Light (solo, New York, 2024) and Nude (Psychic Readings Gallery, New York, 2025).