B³

_**B³**_ is a two-person exhibition that emerges from a series of focused conversations over the past nine months (and nearly nine years of collegiality) between the artists **Ilana Yacine Harris-Babou** and **Patrick Carlin Mohundro** around art, materiality, and the home. Considering the spirit of generosity and notions of gift-giving, the artists have created a 'store-of-sorts' at the storefront location of Essex Flowers. Bed, Bath and Beyond Abstraction is a conceptual premise that Mohundro used to produce past works and publications. As a shared impulse, this third installment proposes and expands on the artists' mutual interests like _**B**_reath, _**B**_ody, and _**B**_eauty (**_B³_**). Some of the materials are gooey, sweating, melting, and perfuming the gallery, while others are hard, seducing the viewer through translucency, gloss, and glaze. These materials can take the shape of outdated iPhones cast from Speed Stick® deodorant; stained glasswork suggestive of mosaic tiles and failing minimalist monuments; ceramic mosaic work that emphasizes the gestures and immediacy of the marks we make on our touchscreen devices; and canvases collaboratively cast from soap, longing to be touched and altered. How do we, as people, collectively work towards being closer to each other in an open-ended time? Some pieces in the exhibition were made together, such as the soap canvases, while other pieces were made separately. All of the work has invited visitors and collaborators into the artists' studios, made in dialogue with each other and their surrounding communities. In 2026, the artists ask how we might find joy in a time when we are increasingly alienated from each other. Perhaps the solution is a shopping spree in the mysterious backrooms of an American omnichannel retailer.