As democracy is strained and histories are systematically erased, art becomes a practice of excavation. Creative practice becomes a space where memories are mined, survival tactics are articulated, and care is reimagined. Art does not simply reflect the world as it is. It digs, listens, insists, and it pries it open.

Unearthed, Unbound gathers the work of the MFA First Year cohort: Alyssa Aviles, Imani Dennison, Monte Marin, Jess Sabogal, and Chukwudubem Ukaigwe. Across distinct practices, these artists turn toward geographic, cultural, ancestral, and bodily origins as a site of inquiry. They examine how power is inherited, how trauma is transmitted, and how identity is shaped within systems designed to constrain it. It is an exhibition about reclamation.

The exhibition spans across a diverse range of mediums, including ballpoint pen drawing, painting, performance, sound, video, installation, sculpture, ceramics, photography, and layered narrative forms. The artists unearth personal and collective histories through embodied, material, and archaeological gestures. Queer and Trans experiences, racialized histories, and lived memory are not treated as fixed subjects, but as evolving terrain that is shared and reimagined. These artists build futures that center Black, Brown, Queer, and Trans lives as sources of wisdom and possibility. Unearthed, Unbound offers a practice of worldbuilding rooted in resistance and care, an insistence that what has been buried still speaks and might even help us heal.

Terry Berlier, Curator

ON VIEW: February 10-March 13, 2026

OPENING RECEPTION: February 12, 4-6pm

VISITOR INFORMATION: Coulter Art Gallery is located at 355 Roth Way (McMurtry Building) on Stanford campus. The gallery is open Monday-Friday, 12-5pm, and will be closed on February 16-17. Visitor parking is available in designated areas and payment is managed through ParkMobile (free after 4pm, except by the Oval). Alternatively, take the Caltrain to Palo Alto Transit Center and hop on the free Stanford Marguerite Shuttle. This exhibition is open to Stanford affiliates and the general public. Admission is free. 

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