In East Williamsburg, a bucolic glade of reeds, willows, verbena, hare’s tail, and other various grasses has sprouted in a rather unexpected place: within the walls of Carvalho. The installation, Desire Path, (2026) is the work of Hudson Valley-based designer Nicole Rossi, and is the setting and mise-en-scene for the gallery’s latest iteration of its Summer Performance Series.
Featuring Martha Graham Dance Company principal Lloyd Knight and Jacquelin Harris of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Meanwhile is the latest work by international choreographer Andrew Skeels, and the performance marks Skeels’s debut in New York.
Lloyd Knight and Jacquelin Harris performing Andrew Skeels’ latest choreographic work, Meanwhile (2026). Photo: Quinn Wharton. Courtesy of Carvalho.
Though Carvalho staged performances as early as 2019, beginning in 2024, the performance program fully coalesced into an ongoing, seasonal series centered around uniting ambitious installation art with key figures and projects from the dance world, all curated and produced by gallery founder Jennifer Carvalho. One of these early series took place over the summer of 2024 and featured choreography by Jodi Melnick and a performance by Melnick and New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns, set against the monumental Spirit Playground (2024), composed of silk organza and jute, by Swedish textile artist Diana Orving.
Another notable performance saw New York City Ballet principal Taylor Stanley and soloist Alec Knight—both of whom were featured in the Guggenheim‘s 2024 Works & Process program—execute their own choreography directly in response to an installation by U.K.-based sculptor and installation artist Nicola Turner, Fabric of Undoing (2025). The performance piece, Ephemeral solace (in passing) (2025), featured the dancers interacting directly with the work, made from masses of salvaged horsehair and wool.
It was a piece from the Winter Performance Series earlier this year, featuring choreographer and dancer Etay Axelroad performing within a site-specific sculpture created by French artist Guillaume Linard Osorio, that put the present Summer Performance Series in motion. Knight had long been on the gallery’s collaborator “wishlist,” and he immediately had Harris in mind as someone he wanted to work with on the project.
Lloyd Knight and Jacquelin Harris performing Andrew Skeels’ latest choreographic work, Meanwhile (2026). Photo: Quinn Wharton. Courtesy of Carvalho.
During the performance, an alternating rhythm of separation and connection is slowly revealed—less a narrative than a poetic reflection on the forward march of time and the myriad ways relationships, experiences, and reality continually evolve, alone or together, in ways that are anything but linear. The performance focuses on the profound nature of intimacy, which is often something fleeting rather than sustained, and can be experienced as much alone as in the company of others.
The meadow is as much a participant in the performance as Knight and Harris, operating variously as a point of focus or a site of respite for the dancers. It creates a third space sought out by one dancer, often as the other has something akin to a solo moment.
Lloyd Knight and Jacquelin Harris performing Andrew Skeels’ latest choreographic work, Meanwhile (2026). Photo: Quinn Wharton. Courtesy of Carvalho.
The vegetal installation is itself a kind of performance piece. Filling the gallery space with the smell of greenery and earth, it grows or wilts regardless of the viewer’s presence, constantly changing and evolving.
Knight’s participation, stemming from a prior performance series, suggests a type of “if you build it, they will come” momentum. Performance is a notoriously tricky medium within the art world landscape, and not without risk, but the 2026 Summer Performance Series underscores Carvalho’s continued commitment to the genre, and a growing (in the case of Desire Path, literally growing) engagement with increasingly ambitious installation art.
Forthcoming performances will be held Saturday, July 25, at 3 p.m., and Saturday, August 8, at 7 p.m. Programming is free and open to the public, but due to limited space, RSVP ([email protected]) is required.