Opening celebration on Friday, July 1st from 6p – 9p.

Commonweal is pleased to announce that as the final exhibition of our first year in operation, the gallery has the privilege of featuring mixed media works by Yikui (Coy) Gu and Eustace Mamba. Both Gu and Mamba are first-generation Americans, born to Chinese and Antiguan parents, respectively. Growing up between two worlds – one that situates itself in the private sphere of family and expatriate community and one in the public sphere – has resulted for them both in a hyper-sensitivity to cultural nuance that they engage to interrogate the politics surrounding the construction (or deconstruction) of identity.

Yikui (Coy) Gu (b. 1983) will be presenting works from his mixed-media autobiographical series Classic Yellow, which uses his wife and himself as subject matter. Through this combination of political, cultural, and domestic imagery, Gu hopes to affirm and subvert the contemporary human condition through a Yellow lens.

Eustace Mamba (b. 1992) strives in his work to create a world less intimidating and more accessible to – and reflective of – people who historically have been intimidated by, and not positively represented, in the fine arts. Imbued with autobiographical associations to his experience as a first born and first generation child of Antiguan immigrants, his works are a physical extension of his need to record complex contemporary issues through simple expressions.