The District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region is full of boundaries and borders, both physical—like the state lines that divide these artists—and imagined—political ideology, economic class, gender identity, religious belief. These boundaries delineate spaces, groups, ideas, and more, but they are easily walked over, pushed through, and broken down. Furthermore, the artists featured in Crossing Boundaries and Breaking Borders: DMV Printmaking also question, push, and break down the traditional notions of what printmaking is as a technique, how it can be used, and how printmaking can be defined.
The exhibition title takes its name from bible verse Jeremiah 29:11 to echo the central role of the Black church in bringing communities together, inspiring hope, and acting as a vector for social change. The goal of this exhibition is to offer a space of learning and meditation that highlights the Black history of Montgomery County and western Washington, DC and pay homage to the communities who championed fights against racial discrimination through faith, family, and fellowship. While this exhibition highlights the communities of Scotland, Tobytown, and Macedonia-Moses, we hope future iterations of Plans to Prosper You will continue to prompt in-depth collaboration within and beyond these communities.
There is a mystery in the act of burying and even more so in uncovering. Maia Cruz Palileo’s paintings and drawings are the metaphorical teeth in this body of work spanning from 2013 to 2019. These works, including a small painting titled Burying Teeth, depict historical narratives from the colonial past of the Philippines, Maia’s country of origin, as well as stories and moments about her own life as a Filipina American growing up in the United States. Her paintings and drawings replicate figures from old family photographs, as well as photos from the American government’s archives depicting anthropological documentation of Filipinos during the American colonization. While her work evokes nostalgia and romanticism, it is imbued with a critical undertone of America’s colonization of the Philippines. Maia’s work is an examination of the Filipino diasporic psyche through a personal and political lens.