Axis 16th National Juried Exhibition
Juror: Faith J McKinnie

Between These Moments

On June 15, 2021, our 15-month COVID-19 public health restrictions, mandates, and bans came to an end in California, placing us between these moments of remembering the loss, despondency, and disparate impacts this pandemic had on communities of color while looking forward to an anti-racist future alongside the joys of reconnecting with survived loved ones and abandoned landscapes. This exhibition proposes that we take up space between these moments, sitting in intentional solitude through reflection, deliberation, connection, and imagination.

On the very same day of California’s reopening, I found myself making the final selections for this exhibition, positing me alone between these moments of looking back on the pandemic and looking forward into the future. The peri and post-COVID transition between Liz Brozell’s “Urban Mom” to “Looking for Work” to Mariet Braakman’s abstracted landscapes in “The Void in the Unknown #4 and #7” and each of the contemplative figurations were all clear and present moments of reflection for me. Ernest Regua’s “In Between” is a visual representation of what the space between these moments feels like. When we understand our past, going back to “normal” is not an option, and the work presented in this exhibition insists that we reflect and reimagine. Through figuration, abstraction, sculpture, and film, you will find yourself between these moments of the past and the future, where our presence is required.

Faith J McKinnie

Faith J. McKinnie is an independent curator based in Sacramento, CA. She holds an undergraduate degree in Art History and is pursuing a graduate degree in Visual & Critical Studies. She has held leadership positions at Crocker Art Museum, Sojourner Truth African Heritage Museum, and is the founding director of Black Artist Foundry.

Andres Alvarez
Chaitra Bangalore
Christine Beirne
Greg Borman
Mariet Braakman
 (Juror's Choice Award) Liz Brozell
 (Juror's Choice Award) Jodi Connelly
Susan Costes Hoffman
Lynn Dau
Thomas Elliott
Michael EndicottBryan Florentin
Sandy Frank
Shelley Gardner
Anne Garvey

Robert Gilbert
Jeffrey Gollober
D'Aujah Gordon
Michael Griffith
(Juror's Choice Award) Joha Harrison
Melanie Hernandez
John Humphries
Clint Imboden
Andrea Lewicki
Dottie Lo Bue
Marianne McGrath
Jennifer Mondfrans
Justin Nunnally

Kelley Palmer
Louise Pappageorge
Susan Poirier
Ernest Regua
William Ruller
Bonnie Smith
Stephen Spiller
Tore Terrasi
Alisa Turner
Ruben Unzueta
Jesse Vasquez
Jose Veronica Torres
Ting Wagn