SOUVENIRS: A NEW SOLO EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS BY HILL SPRIGGINS

New York, NY – Galerie Shibumi and Underscore Laboratories are pleased to announce Souvenirs, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Hill Spriggins. The show opens with a reception on Thursday, October 16, from 6 to 8 PM and will remain on view through November 15, 2025.

For Hill Spriggins, souvenirs are more than postcards, trinkets, or keepsakes; they are the moments that stay with you long after the trip is over. Over the past year, Spriggins traveled more than ever before. She visited Australia, Scotland, London, North Carolina, and Maine. Each destination offered memories, images, and the irresistible pull to return to the studio in New York to paint.

“Souvenir” in French means “memory,” and “se souvenir” means “to remember.” The dual meaning speaks to Spriggins’ renewed relationship with memory and her desire to hold onto it through painting, a deeply personal process shaped by her own history with depression and memory loss. “Souvenir is defined as a thing kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event,” Spriggins says.

“I am lucky to live a life where almost every day feels significant enough to want to document and remember. I think that is what these paintings are about, gratitude for the small moments, the people around me, and the love I feel in those memories.”

Spriggins’ practice in earlier works often omitted backgrounds, reflecting a sense of being ungrounded and detached from place. In contrast, Souvenirs embrace setting and presence. The paintings capture friends and loved ones, conversations at a bar, a quiet moment at home, and a crowded DJ set. Each one is grounded in the fullness of lived experience.

The show also takes inspiration from Vincent van Gogh’s journals, where the artist wrote about leaving behind some souvenirs in the form of drawings and paintings, not tied to any movement but filled with genuine human sentiment. These words guided Spriggins in creating this body of work.

Spriggins hopes audiences leave the exhibition with a sense of love, gratitude, and connection.

About the Artist

Hill Spriggins is a New York–based painter whose work explores memory, intimacy, and the beauty of everyday moments. Using a wide spectrum of color, from cadmium scarlet to vivid blues and viridian greens, Spriggins builds layered portraits of life as it unfolds, honoring the sentimental and the fleeting alike.