Fifth Ward / Delray

Qualia Contemporary Art is pleased to announce Fifth Ward/Delray, an exhibition curated by Alexander Nemerov. Featuring the art of two Black artists, painter Gregory Edwards and photographer Jen Everett, the show explores the persistence of our earliest memories – of the places where we grew up – in all that we subsequently do and think. Accompanied by a printed curatorial essay, the exhibition is a heartfelt exploration of the mysteries of memory. Edwards’ paintings wield the freeing and expansive language of abstraction to express a full and infinite range of human experience, while Everett’s collection and arrangement of vernacular photography and personal ephemera transcend the familiar archetypes of family portraiture to reveal the elusive qualities of home and family, and the collective mythology beneath each individual’s story of origin. Edwards and Everett's works address the universality of home through the texture of their specific lived experiences and their distinctly personal interpretations of memory, place, ancestry, and belonging. Fifth Ward/Delray presents the work of two critical Black artists, Edwards and Everett, as Nemerov’s curation underscores the artists’ capacity to activate within each of us our shared humanity by making space and portraying that for which we do not have a name. Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to engage in the dialogue between the works selected by Nemerov, the accompanying curatorial text, and their relationships with the notion of home.