Rekindled Promise | Chelsea Kaiah, Melissa Leandro, Chau Nguyen, Brian Sing

MAY 2 - JUNE 10, 2023

Meet the artists & reception: Friday, May 5, 6 - 8 pm | Talk at 7 pm.

Rekindled Promise

CHELSEA KAIAH, MELISSA LEANDRO, CHAU NGUYEN, BRIAN SINGER & TANEKEYA WORD


Pentimenti Gallery is delighted to present a group exhibition titled Rekindled Promise. This show coincides with Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America, a collaborative exhibition taking place at the African American Museum in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (March 23 - October 8, 2023), and in parallel with corresponding gallery exhibitions in Philadelphia this spring.

Pentimenti Gallery invited five artists that draw their inspiration from the challenges we face while living in America today. The selected artworks were created through the lenses of artists of different backgrounds and different concerns, such as climate change, immigration, material culture, and America’s complex past. These cultural critiques aim to turn a mirror on what modern America is versus what it purports itself to be.

CHELSEA KAIAH is a passionate activist for Native American rights, awareness, and sustainability. She implements traditional practices of pine needle weaving, beading, porcupine quilling, and hide work, incorporating her interdisciplinary skills to meld a perspective of culture and artistic practice. Storytelling has always been an integral part of her upbringing, connecting her to her community, heritage, and hopes for the future. Chelsea’s work becomes more than tradition, it becomes a cultural experience.

Chelsea Kaiah (b. Northern Ute Reservation, UT) received her BFA from Watkins College of Art and Design. In 2022, she was awarded the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation LIFT grant for Early Career Support for Native Artists Award, Portland, OR and The Greene Fellowship, Denver, CO. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Native Arts Artist-in-Residence, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO and the Redline Contemporary Art Center, Denver, CO.

MELISSA LEANDRO explores her Costa Rican/Latin American roots, her family memories, and her relationship to nature to create topographical fiber works filled with her drawn and collected imagery. Her paintings are vibrant, animated, and heavily layered through traditional and non-traditional processes of stitching, quilting, weaving, and dyed fabric. Melissa leads us through an alternate reality by mirroring her personal moments of daily life, her childhood fantasies, and her nostalgic cultural ephemera.

Melissa Leandro (b. Miami, FL) received her BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at the University of Nebraska Omaha; the Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Frieze Art Fair NYC’21, New York, NY; and more. Her work resides in the collections of Belgravia Group at Renelle, Chicago, IL; EAC Consulting, INC, Federal Reserve of Chicago, IL; The Estée Lauder Companies, New York, NY; Brown Legacy Group, Chicago, IL; and more. She has received numerous grants, awards, and residencies: The Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation Chicago, Artadia Awardee, Brooklyn, NY; Wingate Artist Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center Residency, Johnson, VT, and more.

CHAU NGUYEN draws from concepts of translation, memory, cultural symbols, materiality, and research on Vietnamese histories to convey frictions at the intersection of cultural identity, personal trauma, colonial fragments, and transnationalism. Her interdisciplinary practice employs experimentation and material transformation to combine her personal perspectives and research on postcolonial multinationalism.

Chau presents a large installation/floor sand painting titled Still Waters.

Chau Nguyen (b. Hanoi, Vietnam) received her BA at Bryn Mawr College and her MFA at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She exhibited at the National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA; Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ; and more. Her residencies include: Wassaic Project; the 77ART Center Artist-in-Residence program; and more.

BRIAN SINGER addresses a variety of social justice issues including immigration, inequality, and homelessness. The bulk of Singer’s pieces on view consists of the thread of the flags unraveled, tied end-to-end, and then wrapped around iconic objects such as books and champagne glasses. Ranging from works on paper to installations, Singer’s practice is unified by the desire to facilitate unexpected moments of human connection.

Brian Singer (b. Arlington, VA) is a Hapa (half-Japanese) artist. He received his BA from California Polytechnic State University. He has exhibited nationally including Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Napa Valley Museum, Yountville, CA; Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA; Massillon Museum, Massillon, OH; Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA; and more. His residencies include Kala Art Institute & YBCA fellow.

TANEKEYA WORD creates mixed media work: drawings, paintings, and prints that center around her understanding of the world as a Black woman artist and scholar. This series of unique/limited prints on view are an homage to Emma Amos and Alice Walker. Word uses the margins of the paper to symbolize the struggle of Black women who are being left behind on the sidelines due to continual oppression. Her works focus on Black interiority, material culture, the value of Black women artists’ perspectives, and the promise to continue the fight for equality.

Tanekeya Word (b. Clarksdale, MS) received her BA from Howard University, her MA from Management American University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Madison, Madison, WI; and more. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, D.C.; and more.

For all inquiries, please contact us at [email protected] or +1 215.625.9990.

Host or Publisher Pentimenti Gallery