The “What’s Next? Art for Tomorrow” exhibition presents a snapshot of the emerging visual art culture in Greater Boston. Thirteen Boston-based artists construct a vision of tomorrow which spurns conformity and celebrates collectivism through an array of creative processes including projection, light installations, photography and digital video techniques. 

 

Boston’s higher education institutions invite a global assembly of young creatives and scholars into its artistic tradition, offering a variety of dynamic perspectives. Diverse in form and representation, these artists create a kind of modern ‘self-portrait’ as abstract reflections of their shifting identities, reaffirming their relationship to their communities. The artists explore the intersectional and how power relates to race, gender and technology. 

 

The rapid shift of society in crisis exposes many of the rituals of modern life as extraneous and artificial. As simple routines are halted, the larger structures that inform our lives are recontextualized and reconsidered. The artists examine these rituals and structures through questions of belonging, identity and meaning, giving us a roadmap for our collective healing after this crisis.

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Tomorrow has never been more uncertain. Although the artworks were created before the global pandemic, their messages and stories are freshly understood under our current circumstances. Through artistic expression, we can still preserve what matters most: our connections to ourselves and our communities.

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