About the Exhibition

What Happens to a Dream Deferred? America at Its 250th features three women artists all defining and redefining what it means to be American during the year that the United States of America turns 250 years old. Because America has never been and never will be just one thing, Holly Harris, Maske Maiden, and Linda Obobaifo show the scope and variety of American dreams, the ways in which they have soared, the ways in which they have failed us, and the ways in which we are still reaching for them. 

Holly Harris’ paintings and prints provide slices of American life. The objects she portrays show her weighing America's ideological heirlooms, asking us which we should adopt and keep, and which we will reject. While her paintings are colorful, her prints are mostly black and white, keeping her messages clear. She broadcasts her questions about deferred and defective American dreams to lay bare the toll of war and violence. 

Maske Maiden, with her kelp forests and masks, invites us into the mythic storytelling and dream-spinning of America. Masks can represent personas and possibilities; they can be reminders of past selves, costumes under which we take cover, or tools to help us stand out. Her work offers us portals into potential worlds where the colorfulness and strength of mythic figures gesture towards different identities, reminders that there is no one American identity. 

Linda Obobaifo’s paintings constantly move between concealment and revelation. Some images look blurred on the canvas, and some are covered by lace and see-through fabrics. The effects address perception and memory, and remind us that history is relative and distorted. Obobaifo is also a poet, and the influence of poetics is clear in her paintings: flowers that are beautiful and delicate are also a dark pattern that seem to grow and spread on a canvas like a weed might. Nothing is ever just one thing.

Together, the work of these artists moves between what is real and easily recognizable in the American landscape to what is blurrier, harder to capture, and more difficult. There are so many different access points for the observer; ways in which to hold steadfast to the promised dreams of America, ways to let go of them, and many ways to dream the America of the future.