Free 2026 Art Week Opening: Kinetic Sculpture Show “Abiogenesis” at SF’s Heron Arts

Image courtesy of artists.Heron Arts is pleased to announce Abiogenesis, a duo exhibition featuring Philip Beesley and Casey Curran. The opening reception for Abiogenesis is Saturday,  November 14th, 2026 from 6-9pm. It is free and open to the public  and will be part of San Francisco Art Week. The exhibition will be on view to the public until January 24th, by appointment only.   Abiogenesis brings together the work of Philip Beesley and Casey Curran around an elusive phenomenon: the emergence of life from inert matter. Their work assembles unmistakably artificial elements that, in their cellular forms and gentle movement, begin to suggest life. Lacework becomes membrane. Scaffolds of repeating cells become skeletons of organisms. Glowing, shimmering light evokes the pulses of nature. Mechanical gestures appear to breathe, bloom, and reach into the world.   Intimations of life within Beesley’s and Curran’s sculptures suggest that living form can emerge from the matter of the earth. Beesley and Curran probe this threshold through myth, science, and sensitive sculptural expression.   Artist Bios   Philip Beesley is a Canadian artist whose sculptures explore the threshold between inert matter and living form. At the heart of his work are glowing, pulsing, precious structures composed of innumerable finely crafted elements. Classically trained in fine art and architecture, he creates immersive installations of lace-like scaffolds and suspended membranes, inviting intimate encounters with light, texture, and gentle movement.   Beesley represented Canada at the 2010 Venice Biennale of Architecture with Hylozoic Ground and returned in 2021 with Grove. His work has been exhibited at major museums worldwide, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Recent permanent installations include Meander in Cambridge, Ontario, and Aria at TU Delft in the Netherlands. His longstanding collaboration with haute couture designer Iris van Herpen spans some fifteen collections.   Bringing sculpture into dialogue with science and engineering, Beesley pursues a beauty inseparable from uncertainty: the smallest tremor can animate an entire field, drawing viewers into its constantly changing, delicately poised balance. His pioneering work in living architecture has helped shape the field of responsive environments. He directs the Living Architecture Systems Group and holds the distinction of University Professor at the University of Waterloo. His individual and collaborative achievements have been recognized with the Prix de Rome in Architecture, two Governor General’s Awards in Architecture, and the ACADIA Design Excellence Award.   Casey Curran received his BFA in painting and sculpture from Cornish College of the arts in 2006.  Curran became a key collaborator in the internationally recognized performance art group Saint Genet in 2008 developing interactive sets which have been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in NY, The Kunsthalle Museum in Krems, Austria, the Luminato Festival in Toronto, Canada, and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. In 2010 and 2013 Curran was awarded the NY Sculpture Space residency and in 2010 and 2014 the Artist Trust GAP grant. In 2018 Curran was awarded an artist in residence grant at Amazon HQ where he focused on a body of work to be exhibited at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2019, MadArt studios in 2021, and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in 2025. Curran has exhibited work at the Bellevue Art Museum, The Whatcom Art Museum, The Children’s Art Museum in NY, Liljevalchs Museum in Stockholm, Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and Paris Fashion Week collaborating with the world renowned designer Iris Van Herpen. His fashion collaborations with Iris Van Herpen and Robert Wun have been featured at the Met Gala in 2022, 2024, 2026 bringing his u…