Photos courtesy of Jacob Koestler.
Front of the Genesis 1:29 restaurant menu, 1970.
Malena Grigoli
Malena Grigoli: Genesis 1:29
On view June 20 – August 22, 2026
In Genesis 1:29, Malena Grigoli animates material from the history of 12210 Euclid Ave (home of The Sculpture Center), specifically its 1970s occupant, a vegetarian restaurant with the titular name, Genesis 1:29. Inspired by one of the restaurant’s staples—freshly baked bread—Grigoli cultivated yeast in the gallery, summoning the invisible accumulation of ambient yeast. Using a functioning, long-ago-salvaged door in the center’s basement as both a cast for the cultivated yeast and a portal into the past, Genesis 1:29 brings together fragments from the building’s history to explore the labor of inhabiting a space—an intangible yet enduring presence within its walls.
About the Artist:
Malena Grigoli is an artist based in Cleveland, Ohio using writing, choreography, and image-making to articulate elements of her primary media: lived time, life cycles, interpersonal negotiations, and maintenance. Beginning in 2024, she directed the year-long project 9413 Sophia Ave, a choreographed deconstruction and performed maintenance of the built environment supported by the City of Cleveland’s Transformative Arts Fund. Grigoli currently serves on the board of SHED Projects in Cleveland, Ohio.
Learn more about Malena Grigoli here.
