When I Get Home, a month long group exhibition by the 2023-2024 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort, features the works of Kannetha Brown, Sydney Darrow, Emily Gray, Andrea Pascual, Adolfo Peralta, and Leiyana Simone Pereira. Ranging across a wide variety of media, these six artists are united by their collective interests in their roots, grief and growth. Exploring the human condition and connection, When I Get Home provides a space for all to commemorate the self, family, and loved ones.
The exhibition is on view in the WaterFire Arts Center gallery from Thursday, May 30 through Sunday, June 30, 2024 with an opening reception on Thursday, May 30 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
In addition to the opening night, visitors are invited to exhibition-related events throughout the month including workshops, an artist networking evening, and panel discussion all led by the WaterFire Accelerate artists. Join the 2023-2024 WaterFire Accelerate artists in conversation for an Artist Panel, moderated by Julio Berroa, 2021-2022 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort Member, on Sunday, June 9 at 3:00 p.m.
Visitors are invited on the third Thursday of the month, June 20, for Gallery Night Providence (gallerynight.org); when the WFAC gallery and other art spaces throughout the city are open late and trolley tours are available. In addition, on Thursday, June 20, artist Leiyana Simone Pereira will be hosting an Artist Networking Night from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. Artists will also lead ArtLab@WaterFire Creative Lab Workshops (waterfire.org/workshops) throughout the month including: a Mindfulness/Creative Workshop with instructor Sydney Darrow on Saturday, June 22 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m., a Paint Night Workshop led by Sydney Darrow on Thursday, June 27 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and a Cigar Box Altar Workshop with instructor Emily Gray on Saturday, June 29 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Registration opens shortly.
The WaterFire Arts Center store + gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to all, donations encouraged.
About the Artists
Kannetha Brown is a photographer from the new age of Cambodian artists creating to preserve their culture after the Khmer Rouge genocide. With her distinct perspective as a first-generation American woman, Kannetha explores bi-cultural identity, family heritage, and memory within her community in Rhode Island. She has exhibited at institutions including Brown University, Rhode Island College, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Her projects have been supported by the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, the Interlace Fund (in partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation and Providence College Art Galleries), and more. Her work is held in private and public collections and was included in a large-scale public portrait installation in Providence, RI. Her photographs have been published by The New York Times, Elle USA, Rolling Stone, and The Boston Globe. Kannetha earned her BFA in Photography with Departmental Honors from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she was the recipient of the Morton R. Godine Fellowship, among other awards.
Sydney Darrow is a Rhode Island-based artist who specializes in representational realism, abstract/surrealism, and the fusion of these styles. Her preferred mediums include Oil Paint, Ink, and Charcoal. Sydney’s art delves into themes of nature, duality, femininity, and relationships. Her aspiration is to leave viewers with a newfound understanding of her art, themselves, or a previously unexplored emotion. At the very least, Sydney aims to evoke even the slightest hint of intrigue or inspiration.
Emily Gray
Emily Gray (b. 1999) is a Providence-based artist and curator, practicing in painting, printmaking, textiles, sculpture, and performance. Her work is informed by her Protestant and Catholic roots exploring her relationship with the natural and spiritual world and her familial lineage. Emily seeks to assemble her own mythic iconography in her art practice, inspired by the spiritual resonance she finds in shells, teeth, the braiding of hair, the sacred heart, and honoring them through constructing altars. Her practice asks “what makes something sacred?”, “how do we honor what we hold dear?”, and “how do the lives of our ancestors live through us?”.
Emily earned a BA in English and the History of Art with a minor in Visual Art in 2022 from Wheaton College, MA. She was a visual art fellow in the CounterClock Arts Collective in 2020 and a film fellow in the CounterClock Patchwork: Poetry x Film Fellowship in 2021. Emily is a recipient of the 2022 Rhode Island Foundation’s Michael P. Metcalf Memorial Fund which allowed her to conduct interviews with contemporary artists in Ireland on intersections of gender, religion/spirituality, and nature in their work and create her own work inspired by her travels. In her role as the Executive and Curatorial Assistant at WaterFire Providence, Emily is an arts administrator and curator, focusing on community arts programming and exhibitions at the WaterFire Arts Center. She is currently a member of the 2023-2024 WaterFire Accelerate cohort.
Andrea Pascual is a first-generation, self-taught fiber artist specializing in handmade garments and textiles. The intimacy of working with her hands allows her to express herself without constraint, exploring texture, structure, and construction. Andrea’s practices include crochet, knit, and sewing. She discovered her passion for creation very young when her mother put her in a sewing class at their local craft store. Later in her adulthood, she was able to connect her passion to her great-grandmother who was a seamstress in Cabo Verde. Andrea’s work aims to amplify the value and sentiment of sustainability and handmade works.
Adolfo Peralta is a Rhode Island based painter and animator. His work is centered on the physical body and movement; using images created in 3D landscapes, photos, and memory to inform his painting. Using the body as a narrative tool, he is now exploring the intersections of the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the human experience. Adolfo has received a BFA in painting and a BA in digital media from Rhode Island College. He is currently part of the 2023-2024 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort.
Leiyana Simone, a Providence, Rhode Island native, is a photo-based artist with a focus on portraiture of subjects of color, her community, and the culture. Her images aim to create a positive representation of people of color by capturing their vulnerability in an ethereal style. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Providence Art Club, in RISD Museum’s Black Biennial, and published in Vogue Italia via Photo Vogue. Leiyana is currently a member of the 2023-2024 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort. She is also a part of the first Emerging Artist Fellowship at AS220 for 2023-2024. Most importantly, was recently awarded the Interlace Project Grant and the RISCA Make Art Grant to produce her first photo book “GOD’S PROVIDENCE” being released in 2025.
