IN THE AS220 GALLERIES

September 6-27th, 2025

opening | Saturday September 6, 2025, 5-7pm

AS220 MAIN GALLERY

@115 Empire St

​​I deserved a better goodbye | John Bhogal

John Bhogal’s creations show the capacity to overcome, To heal and to thrive. Although, today John Bhogal still lives under the pressure of every day reality he continues to tattoo and inspire others to self express, finding the light within darkness through paintings. 

"Born from the ashes of urban struggle, and growing up in group homes and foster homes

my art transforms pain into purpose. Through vibrant colors and bold strokes, I reclaim my narrative, shifting the gaze from despair to resilience.

From streets of hardship to canvases of hope, I weave tales of redemption, inviting viewers to witness the beauty in the broken. My journey is one of transformation, where darkness fuels creativity, and adversity births strength. I paint to heal, to overcome, and to proclaim: beauty can bloom in the most unlikely places."

PROJECT SPACE | READING ROOM

@93 Mathewson St.

Then and Again | Michael Yefko

Then and Again explores the ways bodies of work evolve and interrelate over time. In particular, it explores how the drawing process is informed by and informs an idea that can evolve in surprising ways: wild places become tame, tame becomes chaotic, and chaos harkens new problem-solving strategies. The work in the show stems from my interest in constructed environments, such as architecture, gardens, and golf courses, and in process systems like scribbling. What interests me as an Artist is invention and design, not recording a particular moment. My goal is to show how form, process and material collaborate to form artistic intent.

For this show, I wanted to select four drawing series that were unique from one another by the materials used. Color pencil, pen and ink, paint on paper, and graphite each exercise the drawing process in their unique, intrinsic ways. I enjoy the diversity of approaches each material offers—from the tightness while sitting with a pen and drawing on an intimate scale to the swinging tempo of graphite at the end of outstretched arm. What is important to me is how working with these differences “adds up” over time. I have also included in the show a group of sculptures formed from repeating shapes that echo the images formed in the drawing series. What interests me is how the viewers’ shifting perspectives as they walk around the sculptures echo the serial readings of the drawings.

I love the abstract and how that language can be used in various ways from the optical to the conceptual. As an Art educator, I was always inspired by working with foundation concepts like line, form, color, and pattern. I believe that by working serially one reveals how the work informs and ask questions of itself, as if guided by and shaping what Frank Stella refers to as the “Abstract Narrative.” 

ABORN GALLERY

@95 Empire St.

GO ‘HEAD, FIX YOU A PLATE |  Jazzmen Lee-Johnson + Persephone Allen

What does it mean to make a home? To create and share space? Space to celebrate, to grieve, to come together? Space to honor those who have passed and those they leave behind? GO ‘HEAD, FIX YOU A PLATE brings together new work by artist Jazzmen Lee-Johnson as she considers these questions of memory, family, and legacy. Alongside new works in this exhibition, Lee-Johnson has carefully curated a collection of photos, books, toys, records, and cassettes that recall her nostalgia for growing up in Baltimore and the familial homes she frequented. Here, she invites artists Becci Davis, Jordan Seaberry, and Dominique Sindayiganza to join her in exploring the universal need for spaces of self expression, cultural tradition, pleasure, rest, and dreaming while reckoning with the complexity of how to be at home in the United States amidst inherited and lived experiences of racism, violence, oppression, and incarceration. Through prints, paintings, textiles, furniture, animations, and installation, works by Lee-Johnson, Davis, Seaberry, and Sindayiganza transform AS220’s Aborn Gallery and evoke Black matriarchal home spaces where families gather to party, resist, mourn, organize, and seek respite.

We invite you to take a seat and consider who and where you come from and how this has shaped you. This exhibition is designed to inspire self reflection, as well as community action. We aim to offer art and space with which to examine the past, witness reverberations across generations, and cultivate connections and care. GO ‘HEAD, FIX YOU A PLATE will be activated throughout the month of September with community workshops and public events. We hope you will join us to share your story, too.