John William Gallery announces its newest exhibition in collaboration with the Wilmington Film Festival, At the Edge. The exhibition opens Friday, October 2 and continues through Sunday, October 11, 2026. Opening reception and film screening take place Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 5:30 – 8:00 PM. The reception is free and open to the public; film screening is a “pay as you wish” to help support our artists and our mission. John William Gallery, 1313 N Market Atrium, Wilmington, DE.

Curated by Kathrine Page, At the Edge invites us to experience the natural forms, contours, and tones of the Scandinavian and Great Lakes landscapes through the lens of documentary filmmaker Matt Kresling and Danish artists Mette Bentzen and Lasse Kristensen. In collaboration with the Wendell Castle Workshop, HB381 Gallery, New York, and the Wilmington Film Festival, the artists present photographs that document and interpret elements of their work created during their artist-in-residency at the Wendell Castle Workshop.

The residency became a critical exploration of the deep geographical and cultural connections between the two continents. Working along the shores of Lake Ontario, the artists searched for stones that embodied qualities central to their practice: a reverence for nature in transformation, an awareness of water’s ancient and shaping force, and an appreciation for the mystery and paradox inherent in the sea. They ultimately selected rocks whose fluid contours revealed the incremental effects of tides and whose visible strata suggested the slow thaw of a disintegrating glacier. Inspired by these specimens, they created two large-scale, stack-laminated, hand-carved sculptural furniture works, measuring four and five feet in height.

This exhibition of photographs documenting the residency draws on a visual language shaped by an aesthetic connection to glacial formations and landscapes of confluence and exchange. It explores emotional intersections and celebrates the threshold where atmosphere and materiality meet. The photographs reflect shared characteristics of the landscapes of Denmark and the Great Lakes region, while highlighting the creativity that emerges from this geographical kinship. Further, At the Edge celebrates the role of intuition as a catalyst for artistic discovery and breakthrough. At its heart, the exhibition offers a meditation on the collaborative residency that brought together furniture designers and filmmakers in an exploration of landscape, material, memory, and place.

Accompanying At the Edge exhibition during the Wilmington International Film Festival is the documentary film, Path, by Matt Kresling in partnership with Nordic filmmakers in Denmark. Path documents the design team Egevaerk’s journey from Denmark to their five- week residency of artistic discovery in Rochester, NY where they designed, built, and crafted sculptures in the workshop of the late legendary artist Wendell Castle. Far from the Danish traditions and expectations that had shaped their craft to this point, they set out to find their own path. This is a film about craftsmanship and the courage to break with the familiar and the forces of nature – an avenue far greater than us all.

Bios
Danish designers Mette Bentzen and Lasse Kristensen founded the design studio Egeværk in Copenhagen, Denmark and were trained at the rigorous Danish joinery PP Møbler. They have been recognized internationally for their thoughtful contributions within contemporary Danish design and furniture making. Both Bentzen and Kristensen have achieved the highest level of recognition within the Danish guild system and their studio has received numerous awards for excellence, including the Carpentry Prize (Kirsten and Freddy Johansens Foundation and the Copenhagen Carpenters' Guild), the Danish Design Award (Best in Arts & Crafts), and the Peter, Ingrid and Ralph Hernoe Honorary Grant. In addition, Kristensen was selected as the winner of the Danish and Nordic championships in cabinetmaking and has represented Denmark in the World Cup in Japan, for which he received the Mærsk Grant and the Poul & Gurli Madsen Grant. Egeværk’s works are in the collections of the Trapholt Museum, Imagine Museum, Lune Rouge Collection, and the collection of Thierry Barbier-Mueller.

Matt Kresling is a documentary filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist who creates documentaries, music videos, short feature films, and two-dimensional drawings. He maintains a studio in Rochester, NY.