SAMASAMA 2019

May 1-25 | Shopkeepers Gallery, Washington, DC

The third edition of SAMASAMA featured over 50 local and international artists in an exhibition from May 1-25, 2019. As the world continues to connect beyond the digital space, the organic cultural intersectionality is inevitable. 

Artists are truly messengers of the times. Through their work, we are able to obtain a snapshot of the mundane and trivial moments of the period they exist in. Between the messages of resilience, self-love, family history, to even light-hearted humor, these works reflect the ongoing complicated experiences of the diaspora. Traditional labels, stereotypes, and titles used as identifiers become more ambiguous, breaking up the homogenous societies they've adapted to, requiring a true reckoning of the ever-evolving global context. 

At first glance, the intentional layout of the show is like a telescope image from space, a seemingly simple capture, a completed puzzle, a whole. The closer we zoom in, we begin to see continents, countries, communities, individuals. As a collective art show, a viewer takes the time to accept and experience each piece of work, the story of the artists are unique and their own, however, part of the foundation of what is SAMASAMA.