#notwhite collective

The works range from tenderness to rage, from beauty to disgust, from the familiar to the bizarre; works that are dreaming forward as we survive realities, investigating the ways we are seen or not seen, how we self-identify and how we seek liberation through sharing space and stories; research and art-making; discussing the history of imperialism and its effect on us, on the whole not-white world.

At the collective’s inception six years ago, the discussions we had about imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy moved from the shadows of rare history books and showed itself clearly as the domestic and personal threat that it is.

We bear witness to acts of oppression that threaten the safety of our communities and our loved ones and the ability to live their lives in freedom, liberty, and justice - unhindered.

We bear witness to inextinguishable fierceness and joy: Amanda Gorman’s inauguration speech; America’s first female vice-president, first Black vice-president and first Asian American vice-president–Sen. Kamala Harris of California.; Deb Haaland becoming the first Native American women to serve in Congress; Black Lives Matter nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize; Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in prison; Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson as the first black woman as Supreme Court Justice. We welcome new representation but denounce the tokenism that whiteness allows and celebrates as performances of justice. These moments were the bare minimum expression of liberation and their exceptionality further proves the oppression that exists for people of the Global Majority.

And it is in between these opposing summits that we tend the garden of humanity in the valley. As a collective, we work to decolonize our minds and spaces through a non-hierarchical love ethic. We fashion tools out of honesty, empathy and vulnerability, so that we may create and exist as our full authentic selves in dignity, always growing and transcending.

This exhibition is a sharing of our experiences, how we connect to our identities, families, bodies; it is a marker towards our future; it is the beginning of furthering our hearts into the land and space we call home, none of it with borders or pre-existing modalities. With this exhibition, we open the door toward all of us being one with each other and moving forward towards more and more humanity. We are here to build bridges of love, understanding, and compassion so that all may be able to be and live as their full authentic selves.

We welcome you into our World