The idea for this exhibition came out of the social isolation that is COVID-19. It’s changed all of our lives. We had to adapt; we lost jobs, we lost time spent with loved ones, and some of us lost the ambition to do anything. Especially as artists, we’ve become tired of being stuck at home and not being able to go out and create like we normally would. Those first few months I felt like art couldn’t be made in this pandemic, let alone this sudden resurgence of non-black/POC people acknowledging the racism that’s still prevalent in this country (which is a bigger problem in itself, but I digress). I was wrong though. I knew that I needed to challenge myself in this strange time, but I also knew that I wanted my friends to join in on this giant endeavor of a project.

So I told my roommates (Gulet, J9, and Mario) that initial idea and it definitely needed a little refinement, at first. But once we started reaching out to other artists, it suddenly turned into this beautiful community of creators. (A community that I hope continues to grow and grow). Some of these artists I knew personally, some I’ve met through other friends, and some I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting in person yet. But truly, seeing all of the work that was created for this collective has really inspired me. I admire all of these amazing creatives and I’m glad I could push them (myself included) to be vulnerable enough to showcase their work with YOU.

(Shout out to Diana and J9 for helping me with everything and dealing with my very nit-picky personality. And thanks to Gulet for truly being my right hand person. Y’all don’t even understand how I would not have been able to get to this point and stayed motivated without them.)

This is only the beginning. There are so many ideas we have for the future of this collective and I can’t wait for you to see it all. Enjoy our first exhibition!

“Create, Never Stop.”

- Curator of BXD,

Ryan DeForeest