Stowaway is pleased to present ‘Shelled’, a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based Elizabeth Tibbetts. Tibbetts presents 7 paintings on canvas. Please join us for an artist reception February 21st, 2026, from 5–8 pm.

Shelled, as a contronym, holds two opposing meanings both true, it is a word that is its own opposite. It refers to a thing having a shell, as a snail or a chrysalis, but also to having been rid of a shell, as a shucked oyster. In one sense of the word it is protection, an outer casing, a home to occupy. In another sense it is the loss of such safety, or the freedom imbued by it, as the shedding of a skin.

Contronyms are also referred to as Janus words. Janus, in Roman mythology, was the god of passages, thresholds, and transition, among much else, and ruled the passage of time. He was depicted with a double faced head, one looking to the past and the other to the future. His dualistic nature, and the possession of two faces always looking in opposing directions, keeps him in a perpetual state of inbetweenness.

In navigating this infinite and vulnerable space between contrasting meanings and multiple truths, time can be seen as a pool, or atmosphere. Like glimpses of objects momentarily pulled out of abyss, before they are swallowed back in - different focal points can be chosen to navigate the tension within this vastness. To move from one meaning of shelled to the next requires ongoing metamorphosis and adaptation in the evershifting weather of time.

- Elizabeth Tibbetts

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Elizabeth Tibbetts (b. 1993) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Chapter NY, New York; Jack Barrett, New York; Gaa Gallery, New York; Midwestern State Gallery, Wichita Falls, TX; Gaa Gallery, Provincetown, MA; and Galerie Lætitia Gorsy, Leipzig, Germany. This is Tibbetts’ debut solo presentation and first time showing with the gallery.