Join us for the opening reception for Mirzam Pérez’s show, Muddling Through, on view at PS1’s Northside gallery Feb. 28 – Apr. 11.

Muddling Through is an art exhibition that embraces uncertainty, resilience, and the quiet optimism embedded in everyday survival. Through sculpture, mixed media, and photography, the works trace moments of fragility and improvisation, where things are neither fixed nor fully resolved. Materials and images shift between the familiar and the unstable, reflecting a state of continual adaptation. The exhibition draws on the Icelandic phrase þetta reddast as both comfort and contradiction—a belief that things will work out, even when evidence suggests otherwise. Together, the works invite viewers to sit with ambiguity and find meaning in the act of muddling through.

About the artist:

Mirzam Pérez is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, mixed media, and photography. Her practice centers on textile-based processes, layered materials, and symbolic forms to explore themes of resilience, migration, belonging, and the relationship between land and identity. Drawing from personal narratives and collective histories, Pérez creates tactile environments where fragility and strength coexist, often referencing mapping, water, and landscape as sites of memory and transformation. Her work embraces uncertainty as a generative space, reflecting an ongoing inquiry into survival, care, and adaptation. Through material experimentation and poetic visual language, Pérez invites viewers to linger within states of becoming rather than resolution.

This event is part of the Iowa City Downtown District’s 2026 Spring Gallery Walk. Learn more and see the full schedule of Gallery Walk stops here.