Carly Sheehan

We Left It Like This

April 19th- May 17th 2026

Double Garage Gallery presents We Left it Like This, new works by Carly Sheehan, on view April 19 through May 17, 2026.

An opening reception will take place from 2–4pm on Sunday April 19

the gallery will be open by appointment throughout the run of the exhibition.

Full Documentation Below

We Left It Like This responds in collaboration with the current state of the space, which is being used for storage following a house fire. The carport-turned-gallery remains exposed to the elements, with ivy growing through the back and waterlogged lumber, doors, and cabinets filling the bays. Rather than clearing or concealing these conditions, the installation engages them as part of the work.

Unstretched paintings are fitted into the garage openings, with cutouts that allow stored materials to remain visible and, in some cases, extend through the works themselves. The paintings are built on canvas through cycles of saturation, sanding, peeling, and layering, using water-based paint alongside dried flowers, plastic drop cloths, styrofoam, and other debris gathered from the site. Drawing from damaged family photographs following a house fire in Sheehan’s childhood, the work suspends memory, material, and environment without attempting to repair or resolve them.

Carly Sheehan (b. 1992, Massachusetts) is a painter and printmaker based in Seattle, Washington. She earned her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2020. Recent exhibitions include Call Me Superstitious at Specialist Gallery and CYCLES at Sand Point Gallery in Seattle, and Obsessed with Forgetting What It Is at North Loop West Gallery in Los Angeles. She was an artist-in-residence at Surf Point Foundation in York, Maine in Fall 2025, and is currently completing a three-year appointment as a Visiting Artist and Full-Time Lecturer in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking at the University of Washington.

Photo Caption: Red Onesie Baby Photo c. 1993 damaged in 2006 fire. Image courtesy of Carly Sheehan.