Inspired by Grace Lee Boggs, Grow Our Souls showcases twelve artists who are reimagining labor in an era of climate change and late-stage capitalism. From yoga mat paintings celebrating Black and Brown humanity to seed installations speculating sustainable food futures, artists present sumptuous and abundant possibilities while illuminating industry practices that maintain labor inequities.

Labor-intensive processes and practices (e.g., foraging, collecting human tears, excavating demolition materials) reorient relations of commodification to honor time, nature, and the body itself. These artists highlight the circularity of labor and consumption: Someone, somewhere on this globe, is weaving our clothes, processing our trash, and preparing food to sustain our lifestyles — often at a cost to their own lives.

Thus, Grow Our Souls expands our notions of labor by presenting interconnected, ancestral, spiritual, and visionary alternatives. Instead of the death of our souls, these artists imagine ways to grow them — in a world where how we work and consume are longer tenable, as evidenced by our planet’s growing inhabitability.

Exhibiting Artists
Astria Suparak, Cindy Shih, Connie Zheng, Diana Li, Jess X Snow, Kacy Jung, Monica Tie, Nancy Sayavong, Preetika Rajgariah, Rea Lynn de Guzman, Sheng Lor and Trinh Mai

Curator
Melissa Wang

Learn more about each artist at www.growoursoulsexhibition.com