The Bronx Museum

Our Futures in Color

This exhibit was curated by the Spring 2021 Teen Council cohort at The Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Teen Council writes: Over the past year, many dreams were lost and shattered due to the pandemic and hard circumstances in NYC. Time was paused and colorless, making us tend to envision Our Futures In Color.

This exhibit invited teen artists throughout New York to bring viewers into the world they dreamed of while in quarantine, whether that be Broadway or an imagined utopia.

Created in 2005, The Bronx Museum’s Teen Council is an intensive paid after-school program in which teens engage deeply with contemporary art and the museum space.

Teen Council is made possible, in part, by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, and The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Education and Community Programs are generously supported by Con Edison, Deutsche Bank, The Hearst Foundations, New York Yankees Foundation, O’Grady Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation, and New York City Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson, Council Member Diana Ayala, and Council Member Ruben Diaz Sr.

May 26 - Jun 26, 2021
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    • Utopia, Kayla Acevedo
    • Untitled, Samiha Ahmed
    • Untitled, Prestila Assenso
    • Fun, Nia Clarke I believe in the future, we shouldn’t have to worry so much like we do now. We should have freedom to have fun and express ourselves without caring about what others think.
    • Serenity, Nia Clarke I believe that the future should focus on helping nature thrive, considering how horribly a lot of people have been treating it. I want to live in a world where nature can coexist with humans, and we don’t destroy it.
    • Persona, Jeremy Cortez It's about the life of many people and the personas they have. It relates to the exhibition theme because this is the world I've dreamed/seen.
    • Untitled, Olivia Cruz
    • Give Your Seat, Nya Eaddy Despite being known for our temperaments, the people of the city can be generous and compassionate. Neighborly solidarity ties unknown communities together- even more so, during the pandemic and will continue post-pandemic. The collage elements embody the unity of separated communities. My work builds on the hopes of maintaining this solidarity and strengthening the communities within our boroughs.
    • Local Train Five Minutes Away, Nya Eddy Living here is a weird and surreal experience within its self. I want to take a familiar space and reimagine it in a dreamscape setting. I play with the monotonous wait for the train and created a space that invites spontaneity, weirdness, and the unexpected— elements missed during the height of the pandemic. All in all, I create a world that invites those missing elements back into the routine of public transit.
    • Shift Into The Subway Subconscious, Nya Eaddy I like to make work that shows an appreciation and awareness of the environment around me- an environment that would withstand disruption during the height of the pandemic. This is embodied through the Goya seasoning and Subway maps motifs. I embrace the culture I am surrounded by and wish for its continued flourishing in a post-pandemic world.
    • Shimmering Colors, Phoenix Foster This artwork takes the traditional image of a demon and switches it around for the purpose of showing people that not everything is what you want it to seem. The colors are bright and they glimmer to express grace. This artwork is about demonization and how often we do this instead of admiring the beautiful colors said person has. This relates to the exhibition not because this drawing is a physical place but a step to a better one. The day we stop worrying about gender, race, sexuality is the day we can all return to full color and shimmer together.
    • Untitled, Eric Garcia
    • Untitled, Aran Glynn
    • Above, Daisy Loyola This piece entails a world above, a world where we can go back to normal, where we can continue to pursue our dreams, where nothing is limitless. A world where we are not stuck, where we see our own potential. A world full of color, no simple black and white. It relates to the theme because with this piece its an invite to explore a world of color with no limits but yourself. Take a look above and not to the ground.
    • Women of Color, Cinda Mejia Merino I decided to include women in my artwork to show that every women is very strong and brave to fight through these tuff times. Overcoming danger like the Covid and fight in their own countries because of their religion or color. Making this made me feel powerful and energetic and I hope any women who see my work would also feel the same way.
    • Untitled, Chioma Ohadoma
    • All Women Deserve To Be Treated With Respect, Albanely Peralta All women deserve to be treated with respect, without them we would not exist.
    • Miles, Amina Rogers This is a photo of my younger brother who is a member of the FUTURE generation.
    • The Way Across, Joel Angel Sebastian This artwork is related to the theme because I wanted to express one of the movements that happened recently that changes the perspective of many people. The BLM, with this unprecedented movement it caused change and growth to happen, uniting all of us for one goal in specific hence the inspiration of this artwork. In the artwork there's a portal and in that portal there's a bridge in which the person is trying to cross, I used the Afrofuturism theme to symbolize the new era that we are going to cross. a new and entirely different world with many changes yet to come much similar to what's going on right now.
    • Avenir, Oriane Sow
    • Untitled, Lynda Spencer
    • Face to Face, Lisa Tang I decided to draw two women facing each other, one representing the future and the other representing the past/present. I wanted them to face each to show the difference and how big of a change there’s going to be. The buildings, technology, and electricity represents the future and how things are going to be more advance. The flowers, nature, and trees represents the present and how things first began. The pyramids and lion shows that they both are from the same unit. They are there to show that no matter where they are in time, they will never forget where they came from and how it all started.
    • Halloween in the New Normal, Katherine Townsend This is a painting of a rare moment in time where things felt normal again, Halloween of 2020. The faint memory of past halloween nights, seeing friends and coming out of our secluded lives is captured in this painting, even with the reminder of the pandemic remaining tied to us.
    • Jane, Katherine Townsend Picking the many moods of my sister, the multiple faces express love, hope, and uncertainty for the future.
    • Vision, Jalinne Villaneuva This photo was taken before the pandemic hit. I don't really remember why I took the photo. However, what I do remember is that during that moment I felt calm. In reality we can't always erase our uncertainty of the future and just let our mind run wild but when we do, it is truly beautiful. Whether you look at the world as it is or you see it as wonderland, it is your own world. Just one moment can create that vision.
    • Untitled, Jasmine Vital
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