Material Witness brings together Candida Alvarez, Teresa Baker, Nicholas Galanin, Tomashi Jackson, Kapwani Kiwanga, and Brenda Mallory around the premise that physical matter functions as an active archival record. The choice of medium is never neutral — ceramic tiles, synthetic turf, acrylic on linen each carry sociopolitical and environmental lineage. The tactile becomes a form of telling, the act of making a process of unearthing. Abstraction serves as a gateway to histories of labor, land, and identity, the gallery transformed into a site of testimony where built and natural environments bear witness to the fluid processions of history.
