Bortolami is pleased to present a three-person exhibition entitled First lines, like first dates, or the first bite of dessert, can be deceptive, organized by Christine Messineo. The title of this exhibition is taken from a text by Ann Beattie in which she discusses the inherent difficulty of beginnings, the first line. Where to start? Beattie nullifies the issue of first impressions by allowing her beginnings to remain elliptical, making the encounter unstable. The reader enters a story mid-conversation, mid-scenario. In this exhibition Ann Veronica Janssens, Kitty Kraus and Daniel Steegmann Mangrané present works where the encounter is not the reveal. First looks cannot be relied upon.