‘knownunknown:

journey into the monomyth’

france rreally

January 9 - 24, 2026
Opening Reception: January 9, 6-8pm

Gallery Hours: Monday + Saturday, 12-6 PM

or by appointment

Stephen Street Gallery is pleased to present France Rreally’s first solo exhibition in New York City. The exhibition evolves from the myth of the Hero’s Journey. The Hero’s Journey is a common storytelling structure that follows a central character on a cyclical quest that calls them away from everything they know to overcome a central obstacle, then return home transformed by their trials. Stepping into the gallery, the viewer completes the adventure as the Hero, traversing distant landscapes and otherworldly portals alike through encountering moving image and sculpture waypoints that embody crucial landmarks in the story.

The works on view present the paranormal as a natural occurrence. Found objects contain magical powers, supernatural visions appear out of common environments, and spiraling between alternate realities is like the passage from day to night. The work mixes references to established magical practices—including scrying, the use of talismans, and sympathetic magic—with touchstones from the artist’s personal experience. Existing somewhere between clear-cut mediums, real and fake, chaos and order, the work reaches towards something present but intangible. However, even while pushing the limits of describing the extrasensory, the show is grounded in reconnecting with foundational human nature through folkloric storytelling and in turn, sparking hidden possibilities in the world around us.

Artist Bio:
France Rreally is an artist and filmmaker. He has presented his work around North America and Europe including at Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Dia Beacon (New York), Millennium Film Workshop (NYC), Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA), and various film festivals such as the Mono No Aware Festival of Cinema (NYC), Film Diary (NYC), Fringe! Queer Film and Arts Fest (London, UK), and Cactus Club Independent Film Festival (Milwaukee, WI). He has been an Artist in Residence at RUD AIR (Laxarby, Sweden), Arteles Creative Center (Haukijärvi, Finland), and Casa do Xisto (Maciera de Rates, Portugal). His work and writing has been included in publications including Almanac Press Journal of Trans Poetics, Cursor Magazine, and Crater Magazine. He is a union cinema and museum worker and has been a volunteer at the collectively-run microcinema Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, NY since 2019. He lives and works in New York City, where he is always becoming and re-becoming himself.