Moon, mesa, sky, air—with singular intimacy, Jill O’Bryan attends to the fundamental elements of earthly life. Hers is an attention that attunes not only to the wondrous matter of the world—striated rock, juniper branch—but to the mystical geometries that bind this planet together, and us to it.

A small color photograph, Mesa #59, 2022, quietly acted as the crux of her exhibition “Breathing with the Elements.” In this image, the moon hovers above the New Mexico mesa where O’Bryan lives. Every other photo in her 2021–22 “Mesa” series is black-and-white, but here the sky’s deep cobalt stuns the