EXHIBIT INFORMATION
12Gates is proud to present our newest group exhibition, first there was a sea, curated by Azra Dawood and featuring artists, Aaron Cohick and Divya Victor; Priyanka Dasgupta & Chad Marshall; Utsa Hazarika; and Baseera Khan.
Imagined as a “continuum room,” the space of the gallery explores the shifting intersections of religion and race that have shaped South Asian lives in the United States. It features projects that connect multiple timelines in U.S. history, often through the use of objects and methods that speak to crossings or journeys. The work of the featured artists is further informed by a shared interest and inquiry into the built environment, from the scale of a city neighborhood or the forested ghats of India, down to a concrete sidewalk in suburban USA or the privacy of an imagined interior space in 1940s Harlem. The artists use these different scales as conceptual (and at times physical) scaffolding for their inquiry into race and religion. In doing so, their projects offer a deeper reading of these architectural and urban spaces and, simultaneously, a more nuanced view into both South Asian and U.S. history.
The show will be open to the public at 12Gates, 106 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA, next Saturday, May 17th, 2025. We will be operating our regular hours, 11 am to 5 pm.
