October 10 through November 28, 2026
Join us for opening night, 8:00 – 9:00 pm on Saturday, October 10 to experience the installation, enjoy hot chocolate, and mingle with other creatures of the night.
Welcome to the world of DoubleParlour, the husband-and-wife duo of Ernie and Cassandra Velasco, who conjure creatures from somewhere else entirely. Working together, the two have created an ever-expanding cast of characters that feels both handmade and otherworldly, as though it had always existed just outside the porch light, waiting to be noticed.
This fall, The MINIMO Contemporary presents Hello Darkness, a new exhibition featuring Doubleparlour ceramics that celebrates Utah's darker nights and the strange, wonderful creatures who live in them. The creatures are friendly and unsettling in the same breath, the kind of company you're not sure you should keep and can't stop keeping anyway. As the days shorten and the shadows lengthen across the Liberty Park neighborhood, Doubleparlour's menagerie steps forward to fill the dark with a little more wonder and a little less fear. Black cats keep their watch. Child-protecting rabbits stand guard. Monsters, humans, and their skeletal friends gather, more neighbors than nightmares. It’s an art world of frightened surprises and charming beings.
There is a magic to the works in this collection. Or is it witchcraft? Each piece asks viewers to contemplate their own dreams and nightmares, and to notice how thin the line between the two can be. Doubleparlour doesn't just sculpt the dark; they furnish it and invite you in.
Experience the DoubleParlour universe, wander its menagerie of odd characters, and leave with a story of your own. A story you might just find yourself telling again around an autumn bonfire.
About the Art
Cassandra and Ernie Velasco met in San Diego in the mid-1990s. She was a college student home on break, and he was a guitarist in a local punk band. They married a decade later. In November 2007, the couple formalized their creative partnership as Doubleparlour. It began as a series of collaborative “Conversations” paintings and developed into a full-fledged sculptural practice based in San Francisco’s Lower Haight. The couple now works side-by-side in Guerneville, California. Together they shape the personality of each of the works they create. The duo builds small-scale characters from epoxy clay and ceramic that are equal parts whimsical, melancholy, and mischievous. Their work occupies a space between fine art and designer toys, and it has earned them a devoted following across both worlds.
In 2013, Doubleparlour was nominated for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Designer Toy Awards in New York, cementing their place in the international art-toy scene. That creative reach led to collaborations with Kidrobot, Toy Art Gallery, and Lulubell Toys, translating their hand-sculpted originals into celebrated vinyl editions. Their work has been featured in Hi-Fructose Magazine, Clutter Magazine, Beautiful Bizarre, Nakid Magazine, Cool Hunting, and the book We Are Indie Toys. Doubleparlour sculptures have been featured in countless galleries from San Francisco’s Modern Eden and New York’s Jonathan Levine Gallery to Outré Gallery in Melbourne and Talon Gallery in Portland.
Cassandra and Ernie continue to create together finishing each other’s sculptures and each other’s sentences. Whether shown in a gallery or displayed in a collector’s home, every Doubleparlour piece embraces the world of the strange, the tender, and the surprising.
About the Artists
