ou, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede, the German, the Eskimo, the Scot,

You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought,

Sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare

Praying for a dream.

Here, root yourselves beside me.

I am that Tree planted by the River,

Which will not be moved.

– From Maya Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (spoken at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993)

In these challenging times, “We Shall Not Be Moved” echoes the sentiments of the iconic Black American protest anthem rooted in Negro spirituals. I desired this exhibition to walk humbly in the footsteps of Maya Angelou, John Coltrane, Alvin Ailey, Faith Ringgold and countless others who have utilized artistic expression to speak Black creative truth to destructive systemic power. The staff of Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art and myself spent many hours perusing images and discussing ideas to select a carefully curated body of work that, like trees planted by the waters, is cultivated from my personal commitment to expressing that creative truth.

As Black narratives not in alignment with the current rewriting of American history are being removed from federal spaces under direct order of our current administration, I believe that it is of timely importance to fearlessly share these narratives in the spaces we still have left. In the words of famed actor Michael B. Jordan, “When they erase, we replace.”

Each work in this exhibition, from scenes derived from iconic Black films to reimagined Art in America magazine covers to paintings inspired by the many stray dogs in the urban neighborhood I grew up in and currently reside in, speak to the Black experience as I see it.

The Black experience is not monolithic and neither are the works in this exhibition. From the colorful to the monochromatic and from the fringes of abstraction to neo-expressionist figurativism, these works reflect Blackness as I have experienced it…like a tree planted by the waters of resilience, its roots absorbing courage and hope, its leaves capturing the warm rays of faith and love, and the branches of its undying trust in the dream of humanity and justice for all continually reaching towards the endless sky.

This tree of Blackness will continually bear fruit.

It will not wither.

And whatsoever it doeth, will prosper.

-Harold Smith

Jan 31, 2026.

The farm I grew up on has been in our family since 1849. My early relationship with the world was largely solitary and largely visual. I spent a lot of time looking at the things around me– soil, sky, animals and plants in all stages of life and decay. These things were as important to me as the people I knew, who were limited to my family and the people who helped us farm until I went to school at age six.

I don’t live on the farm anymore. I have a nice lot in town with a beautiful but illegal chicken coup, a selection of trees and bushes that I love and flowers I try not to kill. My days are busier than when I was a child, but I still spend as much time as I can just looking closely at things. There is so much that is uncertain in the world– I find it a comfort to take time to see one thing clearly, or a part of one thing clearly, each day.

The things I paint are symbolic of my life, and laden with meaning. They represent people past and living: family, loved ones, our history together, people I would like to honor. An awe of the forces of nature, the beauty of small things, the pleasure of a metaphoric pairing.

I love oil paint– the way it smells, the way it moves, the way it captures color and light. I love the idea of painting as the accumulation of small actions.

-Tilly Woodward

In this exhibition of miniature works, Michiko Itatani distills the immersive spatial language of her monumental paintings into an intimate format. These compact compositions preserve the artist’s signature sense of depth, architectural structure, and perceptual ambiguity, translating vast, enveloping worlds into objects meant for close and sustained looking. Scale shifts, but the psychological and spatial intensity remains: luminous layers suggest interior and exterior spaces at once, while compressed perspectives evoke memory, time, and imagined environments. Together, the works offer a concentrated encounter with Itatani’s expansive visual language, inviting viewers to experience her universe through proximity rather than immersion.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Maria Vasquez Boyd | Kim Lindaberry | Susi Lulaki | Kat Dison Nechlebová | Vivian Torrence

According to Surrealist Andre Breton the concept of the “Supreme Point” is understood as “ a certain point of the mind at which life and death, the real and the imagined, past, present and future…cease to be perceived as contradictions.”

The five artists in this exhibit, using a variety of media, all explore various levels of consciousness that engage us in various possibilities of reality at a time when nothing seems certain. Explore with them the possibilities inherent in their mindsets.

Curated by Elisabeth Kirsch