SOFT LOGIC Curated by April Behnke
Rajee Aryal, Antonia Gurkovska, Melanie Pankau, and Cole Pierce Artdose Projects | 1310 Wisconsin Avenue, 1st Floor, Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53081 | artdosemagazine.com
Soft Logic brings together four Midwestern artists who work through self-imposed systems, repeating and assembling simple forms to produce multifaceted abstractions. Each develops frameworks, whether through coding, reuse, ritual, or systematic layering, in which the hand is present and its fallibility is embraced. Feature artists are Rajee Aryal (IL), Antonia Gurkovska (IL), Melanie Pankau (MN), and Cole Pierce (IL). Soft Logic is curated by April Behnke.
In Soft Logic, formal repetition is neither rigid nor fixed. Rather, it operates as a flexible framework through which memory, perception, ritual, and material transformation unfold. What emerges is not perfect order, but a record of thinking, making, and revising, an old and fundamental practice seen through a contemporary lens.
RAJEE ARYAL CHICAGO Rajee Aryal builds her work through custom-coded systems informed by her background in computer science. Using grids generated from images of discarded objects in meaningful locations, she layers and reworks these structures to examine memory, erasure, complicity, and shifting perception. Originally from Kathmandu Nepal, Rajee Aryal is a Chicagobased interdisciplinary artist working across painting, drawing, textiles, and digital processes. Using custom-coded computer-generated grids derived from images of garbage in personally significant places, she creates layered works that transform and nearly erase their source imagery through labor-intensive patterning. Interested in textile traditions, computer programming, weave structures, shapes, symbols and systems of representation, her work explores memory, degradation, complicity, erasure, and shifting perception. Aryal received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Website @rajeearyalart Photo courtesy of the artist.
Rajee Aryal, Home, 2026, Handstitching on Lokta Paper, 7 x 5 in. $500. Courtesy of the artist.
“ME”, 2025, Acrylic and archival latex print on organza and canvas, 20 x 20 in. $3,000. Courtesy of the artist
Rajee Aryal, “NO”, 2025, Acrylic and archival latex print on organza and canvas, 20 x 20 in. $3,000. Image courtesy of the artist.
Black, 2025, Colored pencil and archival latex print on Rice Paper, 24 x 24 in. $1,200. Image courtesy of the artist.
ANTONIA GURKOVSKA CHICAGO In her Closed Circuit series, Antonia Gurkovska uses painting and collage to recycle fragments of previous works. Each composition reassembles painted remnants into new structures. Repetition and reuse emphasize circulation over completion, keeping abstraction in a state of continual unfolding. Antonia Gurkovska is a contemporary artist whose works are characterized by paint collage, layered texture, puncturing of the pictorial plane, and deliberate repetition, often structured within centripetal grid systems that function simultaneously as language, architecture, and metaphor for order and disruption. Frequently conceived as installations, her paintings convey both monumental and intimate encounters with space. Gurkovska received an MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the National Academy of Art in Sofia. She is a recipient of the George and Anne Siegel Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and an Erasmus Student Exchange Grant, and has exhibited widely in Europe and the United States. While from Sofia, Bulgaria, she currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Website @agurkovska Photo courtesy of the artist.
Antonia Gurkovska, Untitled (from the Trace Elements Series), 2026, Acrylic on board, 12 x 9 in. $800. Image courtesy of the artist.
Antonia Gurkovska, Untitled (from the Trace Elements Series), 2026, Oil, acrylic, and spray paint on board, 12 x 9 in. $800. Image courtesy of the artist.
Antonia Gurkovska, Shear, 2025, Oil and acrylic on board , 14 x 11 in. $1200. Image courtesy of the artist.
Antonia Gurkovska, Latency, 2025, Oil, acrylic, and spray paint on board, 14 x 11 in. $1200. Image courtesy of the artist.
MELANIE PANKAU MINNEAPOLIS Melanie Pankau follows a disciplined system of daily meditation combined with automatic drawings to generate paintings. Her iterative process produces geometric forms and diagrammatic structures that guide each piece, while allowing the work to develop naturally over time. She balances structure and openness within her non-hierarchical compositions. Melanie Pankau’s paintings are guided by her daily meditation practice followed by a process of automatic drawing where geometric forms and diagrammatic structures unfold. For over a decade she has studied various meditation traditions and techniques and integrates this parallel practice into her paintings. Pankau received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1999, her MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 2011, and studied at the Bauhaus Universtät in Weimar, Germany. Her work has been shown in regional and national exhibitions at venues including: Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN; Thomas Barry Fine Arts, Minneapolis, MN; South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN; Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA; Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN; TuckUnder Pavilion, Minneapolis, MN; McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL and art fairs Art Miami, FL, and EXPO Chicago, IL. She has participated in several artist residency programs including the Vermont Studio Center, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Pankau is a recipient of a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Community Arts Assistance Program Grant, a Metropolitan Arts Council Next Step Grant, and grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her work is represented by McCormick Gallery in Chicago. She is based in Minneapolis, MN. Website @melaniepankau Photo courtesy of the artist.
Melanie Pankau, The Many Are One, 2025, Acrylic on panel, 15 x 16 in. $2,400. Image courtesy of the artist.
Melanie Pankau, The Center is Always the Beginning, 2025, Acrylic on panel, 15 x 16 in. $2,400. Image courtesy of the artist.
Melanie Pankau, Involution (Origin), 2023, Acrylic on panel, 11 x 10 in. $1,000. Image courtesy of the artist.
Melanie Pankau, Ether, 2023, Acrylic on panel, 25 x 26 in. $4,000. Image courtesy of the artist.
COLE PIERCE CHICAGO Cole Pierce investigates perception through an idiosyncratic process of layered masking to create pattern-based paintings. In his work, the complex interaction of layers forms compositions that reveal shifting perceptual relationships. Small inconsistencies and fractured edges introduce subtle instabilities that breathe life into repetition. Cole Pierce received his MFA from Northwestern University and a BSS in Art and Sociology from Cornell College. He has recently exhibited at THE MISSION, the Evanston Art Center, Heaven Gallery, Peter Paul Luce Gallery , PArC Lima, and McHenry County College Art Gallery. He received DCASE (Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) grants in 2016, 2017 and 2019, and was a SÍM (Association of Icelandic Visual Artists) resident in Reykjavík, Iceland. In 2016, he completed his first major public work, a 60’x11’ mural in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. He is based in Chicago, IL. Website @colepierce Photo courtesy of the artist.
Cole Pierce, 315 (Sky stratum, blue streak), 2026, Acrylic on canvas, 14 x 11 in. $2,000. Image courtesy of the artist.
Cole Pierce, 295 (Frequentive), 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 in. $2,000. Image courtesy of the artist.
Cole Pierce, 273 (Gravity), 2023, Acrylic on panel, 13 x 15 in. $2,200. Image courtesy of the artist.
Cole Pierce,288 (Fraction), 2024, Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12 in. $2,000. Image courtesy of the artist.
CONTACT
APRIL BEHNKE CURATOR email: aprilbehnke@gmail.com @aprilbehnke
FRANK JUÁREZ PUBLISHER/OWNER email: artdosemagazine@gmail.com @artdosemagazineweekly @artdosemagazine
To purchase artwork, contact Frank.
SOFT LOGIC OCTOBER 10 - NOVEMBER 21, 2026 1310 Wisconsin Avenue 1st Floor Sheboygan, Wisconsin 53081 Open by appointment