Lost in
the Flood

Transformer’s Siren Arts program is honored to present Lost in the Flood, an exhibition of interactive paintings by Washington, DC based artist Noël Kassewitz. Lost in the Flood is part one of a two-site exhibition, with the second presentation opening May 9 at Transformer in Washington, DC.

Drawing upon her ocean-based upbringing and background in art conservation, Noël Kassewitz creates works that feel at once like wistful shrines and research laboratories, adapting materials into resilient forms for uncertain futures. Working across painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, she erodes the boundaries between disciplines to examine both the endurance and fragility of cultural memory in the face of rising environmental, social, and political pressures.

Lost in the Flood brings this practice to Asbury Park — a city that knows something about submersion and revival — where Kassewitz's work finds its most literal home. In collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), her series A(c)qua Alta tethers paintings to automated pulleys and winches that respond to live tidal data, raising and lowering in real time with nearby water levels. Alongside these kinetic works, The Raft of the Medusa — inspired by the city's own Medusa featured prominently on the historic Carousel Building — anchor the show in a longer history of survival, myth, and the wreckage we cling to. Together, the works ask what we carry forward and what we let the rising waters take.

“Lost in the Flood is a timely exhibition exploring topics of vital importance at local, national and international levels. Transformer and our Siren Arts program are proud to provide a platform for Noël’s thoughtful ideas and comprehensive artwork. Whether within the Atlantic Ocean or the Potomac River, tides are a stunning example of the power of gravity. With deeper understanding of their formation, we can better appreciate the waters around us.” – Victoria Reis, Founder; Executive & Artistic Director, Transformer.

About Noël Kassewitz: A multi-time grant winning artist with works held in several public collections, Noël Kassewitz (b. Miami, Florida) has presented artist talks at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and National Gallery of Art. In 2024, she was named an inaugural Environmental Justice Fellow with Social Arts & Culture in partnership with the Aspen Institute. Kassewitz has also been an artist-in-residence at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center on Governors Island, at Vermont Studio Center as a VSC/Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellow, and in Carrara, Italy with marble master sculptor Boutros Romhein.

Exhibition Hours: Friday – Saturday, 12 – 6 PM. Siren Arts at the Asbury Ocean Club - 4th Ave & Kingsley St, Asbury Park, NJ.

Image Credit: Noël Kassewitz, A(c)qua Alta Installation