SANCTUARY

It has been an honor to jury this exhibition. I am grateful to Gearbox Gallery for inviting my contribution to this annual project which brings together artists from different places and traditions. In a way, a temporary community is made. In normal times, I admire artists and their commitment to personal and aesthetic discovery. It is a hard job that doesn’t get enough understanding or support. In reality, I was not able to include as many deserving artists as there were because of the limitations of the gallery. But everyone earned praise for the quality of what I’ve seen.

No doubt the conditions under which this work is shown do not match the circumstances in which the work was made, during pre-COVID times and before the murder of George Floyd. It will be important for us to meditate on how our past meshes with the present. I am confident that we will see the future inextricably tied to community, affirming the expanded sense of self and consciousness that art making brings.

—René de Guzman (Curator)

July 23, 2020