Reclamation

Fellows Group Show

Curated by Helen Frederick

Wednesday, January 29th through Saturday, February 22nd, 2025

This exhibition delves into the intersection of protest, personal transformation, and the profound need to reclaim spaces of failure as places of security, healing, and empowerment. It is a collective reimagining of how safety and identity are not stagnant but continuously negotiated, resisted, and reclaimed in the face of external forces.

Each work reveals a journey toward reclaiming identity, agency, and belonging.

From intimate depictions of familiar and safe spaces to bold expressions of collective resistance, the artworks celebrate resilience and the human spirit’s capacity to redefine and renew. They invite viewers to reflect on the intersections of personal and communal narratives that show transformation begins with claiming one's voice and carving out spaces for liberation.

Through diverse mediums and perspectives, Reclamation becomes a testament to the unyielding pursuit of freedom and self-determination, offering a space for reflection, dialogue, and connection.

Olivia Bruce

Olivia is a watercolorist whose work delves into themes of transformation and identity. Her practice explores forms intertwined with abstract, personified emotions and profound connections, often using multi-figurative compositions that evoke an out-of-body experience or a spiritual dance, seamlessly merging the forms into one. Combining traditional techniques with experimental methods, such as cutting and collage, she creates multi-layered narratives that reflect personal transformation and interconnectedness.

Olivia’s work studies the form through color washes and bold strokes of line, accentuating the body's curvature and evoking a sense of movement. The form becomes a site of wonder, action, imagination, and belief, depicted in its rawest state. These beings, captured nude, embody purity and vulnerability while exuding a boundless power that transcends societal limits. By placing these forms in environments reminiscent of nature, the artist creates a dialogue between humanity and the natural world, celebrating liberation, transformation, and multidimensionality through works that foster profound connection. As Toni Morrison wrote, "Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another." This sentiment echoes throughout Olivia’s work, as her figures do not merely exist in a liberated state—they embody both vulnerability and commanding presence of power.

Amity Chan

Art is the medium for my activism. My practice is driven by a deep commitment to raising awareness of the social and political issues in Hong Kong, a home I have not been able to return to since 2021. My recent works draw inspiration from my personal experiences within the city’s pro-democracy movement and its increasing barriers. Through two-dimensional and three-dimensional works, I offer the world a realistic view of the seemingly prosperous and free city, urging viewers to reflect on the corrupted systems and to bring greater awareness to the pressing human rights issues in my home. 

Anchored in preserving Hong Kong's identity amid political challenges and the diaspora experience, my artistic practice stands as a testament to the resilience of a culture, capturing the spirit of a city that refuses to be silenced. As a member of this diaspora, my art reflects on both immediate struggles and the ongoing challenges of preserving Hong Kong's cultural heritage. 

In each body of work, I immerse audiences in a specific social issue utilizing selected mediums. In 2019, I constructed a life-size wooden cage, Life in A Cage, to represent the actual size of the cage room apartments in Hong Kong. Immersed in the 4 x 4 x 6 ft. cage room, smaller than the average American jail cells, the viewers are confronted with a face of Hong Kong that they never knew existed. 

During the critical years from 2019 to 2020 when major pro-democracy protests took place around the city, I created over ten works that directly responded to the Anti-Extradition Law Protest, including two interactive public installations, Lennon Wall (2019-2020) and Fearful to Fearless (2019), two screen printing series, Be safe, my friend. (2019) and Handcuffs (2019), and three photography series in which I captured new faces of Hong Kong during the age of protest. 

Omari Jesse

As a multidisciplinary artist, I create work that spans the realms of collage and painting, driven by a desire to capture the quiet, often unnoticed beauty of the people who shape our lives—whether strangers, friends, family members, or lovers. My art seeks to shed a sentimental light on these relationships, elevating the everyday moments and gestures that connect us to one another. Each piece is a reflection of the deep emotional complexity I observe in the people around me, an attempt to distill their essence through intimate portraits that speak to both their individuality and our shared human experience.

Alongside this personal exploration, my work delves into the intersection of race and urban life, highlighting the ways in which culture, identity, and environment converge within each individual. Through intricate compositions, I intertwine the deeply personal with the cultural, merging my own experiences with broader societal narratives. The juxtaposition of abstract elements and figurative forms invites a dialogue between past and present, tradition and transformation, as I explore how race and urban life inform and shape our interactions with one another.

In all of my work, there is a focus on nuance—the small, often invisible details that reveal truths about identity, belonging, and the spaces we occupy. Through my work, I aim to create a space where the personal and the cultural meet, where every portrait becomes an act of both introspection and connection.