WaterFire Arts Center: America, Unfinished?!
July 2 – August 30, 2026
475 Valley Street, Providence, RI 02908
About America, Unfinished?!
The WaterFire Arts Center is a contemporary arts venue developed from a restored industrial building once part of U.S. Rubber. Operated by WaterFire Providence, the space supports exhibitions, community events, venue rentals, and public programs that engage civic space, creative practice, and community dialogue.
America, Unfinished?! brings together works that examine the systems, stories, and spaces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the idea of America. The art here will engage these ideas critically, experimentally, or through lived experience, including themes such as:
Labor and infrastructure
Migration and movement
Identity and belonging
Memory and history
Civic life and shared places
Material culture and everyday experience
Why did I choose these pieces?
For this show, I chose to submit 2 pieces that explore the identity of people with disabilities and the LGBTQ community in America.
A skeletal structure stands resilient in an open field, framed by dense woodland under a dramatic sky. For the artist living with chronic illness, it is the ever-present blueprint of a life that was, or a future longed for, constantly being built and rebuilt. It represents the fluctuating nature of health, where the foundations of comfort and normalcy can feel both solid and ethereal. The open spaces highlight the unseen battles, the invisible symptoms, and the deep yearning for a 'home' within one's own body that feels stable and complete. The landscape also signifies hope and the continuous construction of identity and resilience, even when the full structure remains a daily endeavor.
Medium: Photography, 2023
Limited Edition Print: 1,000, 8×12
Exhibited at WaterFire Arts Center, Providence RI, July - August 2026 for the America, Unfinished?! Exhibition
Exhibited at Parts Work: Accepting Identity - a solo exhibition on Disability & LGBTQ Identity hosted by Sip413 Gallery & Cafe, July 2026
A skeletal structure stands resilient in an open field, framed by dense woodland under a dramatic sky. As an artist living with chronic illness in America, this frame speaks volumes: it is the ever-present blueprint of a life that was, or a future longed for, constantly being built and rebuilt. It represents the fluctuating nature of health, where the foundations of comfort and normalcy can feel both solid and ethereal. The open spaces within the frame highlight the unseen battles, the invisible symptoms, and the deep yearning for a 'home' within one's own body that feels stable and complete. Yet, its persistence in the landscape also signifies unyielding hope and the continuous construction of identity and resilience, even when the full structure remains a daily endeavor.
A dramatic diagonal split creates a visual metaphor for the different spaces navigated by the LGBTQ+ & Disability community. The smooth expanse is melting ice, those that have let go and accepted that they contain many aspects of their identity. The side still frozen from an ice storm symbolizes the turbulent, but ultimately necessary exploration of the different parts of identity, that there is freedom, joy, beauty and vulnerability of living with true visibility. The frozen chaos would not be as stunning without the contrast of the smooth and flowing water. The line is not a barrier, but a site of acceptance and courage, where the choice to embrace the different identities and live in the parts of yourself that conflict is true freedom of expression.
Medium: Photography, 2021
Limited Edition Print: 1,000, 12×18
Exhibited at Lotvin Family Gallery, Hopkinton MA, March - April 2026 for Depth of Field Juried Photography Exhibition
Exhibited at WaterFire Arts Center, Providence RI, July - August 2026 for the America, Unfinished?! Exhibition
Exhibited at Parts Work: Accepting Identity - a solo exhibition on Disability & LGBTQ Identity hosted by Sip413 Gallery & Cafe, July 2026
A dramatic diagonal split creates a visual metaphor for the different spaces navigated by the LGBTQ+ community in the US. The smooth, frozen expanse represents the cold, solid expectation of conformity or the required façade of silence to fit in. The active, liquid side symbolizes the joyous, sometimes turbulent, but ultimately necessary breaking of that surface—the freedom and vulnerability of living with true visibility. The line is not a barrier, but a site of transition and courage, where the choice to flow is made.
