RESIST is an exhibition of responses to the political climate of the United States. Let’s not say the “current” political climate or the “post-election” climate because what is happening now is merely a continuation of what has come before it. Americans (especially those with comfortable lives) tend to suffer from nasty cases of historical amnesia. Is the rise of Donald Trump frightening because it’s truly unexpected, or because we couldn’t see through the glossy surfaces of our socioeconomic bubbles?

We invited artists to show work that deals with the viscerality of politics. Work that eschews pithy or sophomoric commentary for subtlety and depth. Work that acknowledges history and its inextricable relation to the present. Work that recognizes emotion as a valid genesis for politics.

We wanted work that seeks and advocates for political solutions heartier and more potent than the ever-nebulous entity of “love.” Work with bark and bite. Work that celebrates bodies on the periphery, bodies in danger, bodies that might be deemed insufficiently human in a culture saturated with rightism.

We wanted work that questions art as a politically useful mode of production. Work that encourages the viewer to go beyond aesthetics and toward activism. Work that questions itself, work that implicates the viewer, work that unsettles the pristine space of art and brings us into the violence and fear of material reality.