Dates
Jan 16 – Feb 15, 2026
Rania Abdalla Marilla Cubberley Shiraz Fazli Vandana Jain In the titular fable found in The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin compiled by Idries Shah in 1966, we glean from Nasrudin, the wise fool of Afghani, Iranian, Turkish and Uzbeki folklore that, “When danger threatens, it threatens all alike.” Once the spectre of danger and chaos is unleashed into the world, no one is completely safe from its reach, even and maybe especially, the people who are at the helms of the violence. A climate that transforms traps into safety nets nurtures creatures and people and amplifies the abundance they bring into our midst. What if resistance is not enough and the wreckage continues to pile up? Who will stop the violence and repair the destruction? How long will it take? As Nature tends towards entropy, we hold fast, hurtling forward in its orbit, trying to create some order in our tiny corner of the universe. This life-long tending does not yield lasting tidiness. Messiness, multitude and soft osmosis always wins. As artists we are ultimately making decisions which encompass our outer worlds and embody the dazzling hybridization of inside and outside that can't be stopped. These acts enrich our understanding of ourselves and our natures. We break our censors and allow our borders to dissolve. We revive in more beautiful shapes. We pass on and leave the models on earth as proof and testimony for the next generation. We do this because we can’t solve our slew of problems quickly or alone. We can only start to do the most urgent repairs and leave some signs along the way. We're gathered here to survey the artifacts of these sacred explorations. Rania Abdalla Kadafour (she/her) is a third-culture textile artist & painter based in Boston. Through experimental quilting techniques and low relief sculpture, Abdalla Kadafour explores themes of erasure & assimilation, beauty, nature, language, and memory. Abdalla Kadafour holds a BFA in Fibers from Massachusetts College of Art & Design. She has exhibited work at Fenway Gallery, The Cambridge Art Association Galleries; Goethe-Institut, Boston MA; Pillar Gallery + Projects, Concord NH; Field Projects Gallery and the Textile Arts Center NY, amongst others. Abdalla Kadafour is a recipient of the Collective Futures Fund Sustaining Practice Grant, MassArt's Donis A. Dondis Travel Award, and the Cambridge Arts Association Emerging Artist Award. She completed a residency with R.A.R.O. Barcelona and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Marilla Cubberley is an artist working across installation, animation, and digital collections, incorporating both found and made objects. Raised in rural Tennessee, her earliest materials were scavenged debris from the woods. Collecting remains central to her work. With a background in dance composition from Hampshire College, bodily investigation informs her approach to form and gesture. She holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and currently lives and works in New York City. Her work has been exhibited across New York City, Philadelphia, and Chattanooga, TN. Cubberley has been awarded residencies at I-Park, NARS Foundation, Walkaway House, Saltonstall, and Stove Works. Shiraz Fazli is an Afghan artist born and based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work explores the contradictions, humor, and absurdity of the Afghan diasporic experience, reimagining cultural memory through paintings, textiles, and dolls. Drawing inspiration from Afghan motifs, music videos of the 1980s, and Farsi script, Fazli combines traditional elements with a satirical twist, using color, texture, and performance to critique diaspora notions of belonging. Fazli is an MFA candidate at Hunter College and has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at Galerie Eigenheim, ACUD Art House, and ReflectSpace Gallery. She is an Afghanistan Cultural Fund grantee through Goethe Institute for a storytelling project that will be released in 2026. Vandana Jain is an artist and textile designer based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her Studio Art degree from New York University and went on to study Textile Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She recently shifted to a studio practice that brings together found materials and textile techniques, both on and off the loom. Her work explores the intersections of labor, cost, and value, and how this affects what we make, and what we throw away. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and reviewed in Artforum, The New York Times, Art Slant, Mumbai Boss, Kyoorius and Beautiful Decay.