The Shape Of Elsewhere: Summer Group Show
What might “elsewhere” look like if you could see it?
Is it a memory of a place you left behind, a dream of someplace new, or the quiet reconciliation of carrying many worlds inside you?
Together, their works resist any single idea of place or belonging. Instead, they open up many ways of seeing, reminding us that “elsewhere” is never just distant or abstract—it is woven into how we navigate our identities, hopes, and the connections that span borders, time, and lived experience. We each carry our own “elsewheres,” shaped by the lives, dreams, and rituals that keep us tied to one another.
The Shape of Elsewhere, on view this summer at Thomas Nickles Project, invites you to wander through these questions alongside ten Cuban-born artists. Each draws on photography, painting, sculpture, or performance to give form—through bodies, rituals, imagined spaces, and spiritual searches—to visions of “elsewhere” that resist any singular definition. They offer glimpses into facets of society and personal experience that dominant narratives often ignore or flatten, reminding us that what might seem distant or abstract is often woven into how we navigate memory, identity, and our shared desires for kinship and peace.
Some works turn outward, documenting overlooked corners of social life. Arien Chang’s stark black-and-white photographs focus on Havana’s bodybuilding subculture, transforming torsos into near-abstract meditations on strength and vulnerability. Gertrudis Rivalta’s intricate pieces unravel the intersecting forces of race, gender, and ideology in Cuban society, reimagining who gets represented and how histories are told. In vivid, cinematic drawings, Rocío García stages scenes that echo the undercurrents of political unrest and personal search.
Other artists turn inward, building spaces of memory and reflection. Linet Sánchez meticulously constructs miniature, fictional interiors from recollections of once-tangible places, sites of gathering and connection that now live on as fragile, dreamlike photographs. Luis Alberto Álvarez López’s delicate abstractions, balancing sharp edges with soft gradients, draw on everyday realities in Cienfuegos to create moments of respite and quiet gestures of hope. Paola Fiterre uses her own body to explore migration and the layered experience of womanhood, transforming intimate spaces into signs of confrontation and resilience.
Together, these artists lean into the spiritual searching that threads throughout the exhibition. Carlos Estévez’s luminous lighthouse becomes a metaphorical guide, pointing beyond the visible toward a deeper human spirituality. Elsa Mora’s poetic sculptures explore dualities of the seen and unseen, offering intimate encounters that invite us to question reality and embrace uncertainty. Samuel Riera’s drawings, made from wildflowers and vegetable dyes, emerge from his studio’s mission to foster community-rooted practices grounded in resilience, ecological awareness, and collective hope. Ernesto García Sánchez, now based in Mérida, Mexico, weaves his life between Havana and Mérida into abstract constructions that trace a personal map of movement and belonging.
The Shape of Elsewhere does not seek to define a place nor to present a single narrative. Instead, it gathers rich expressions of life that unfold across borders, identities, and temporalities, opening new ways of seeing that expand what we think we know about a place, each other, and ourselves. It reminds us that all of us, in some way, carry our own “elsewhere,” shaped by the lives, dreams, and rituals reshaping how we understand ourselves and the worlds we share.
