USA?
MAC (Mount Airy Contemporary)
25 West Mt. Airy Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19119
11/6/2026 - 12/18/2026
Reception November 6th from 6-9 PM
Gallery hours: by appointment
www.mountairycontemporary.com
Phone: (267) 270-2787
Email: info@mountairycontemporary.com
MAC is pleased to present USA?, an exhibition of works by Renny Molenaar, Kara Mshinda, Talia Greene, Mark Stockton, Susan Hamburger and Kevin Miyazaki. USA? explores themes of identity, belonging, power, oppression and liberation as they relate to the notion of a United States of America.
In Talia Greene’s series, Precarious Balance, animals are meticulously rendered in spaces that are empty, save for suggestions of architectural remains. Their detailed rendering, reminiscent of the illustrations that Victorian naturalists intended as a faithful document of animals in their natural habitat, belies their unnatural activities. Here they are perched atop one another, scrambling for prominence. These animals seem forced into unsustainable positions, perhaps as a consequence of diminishing space.
On one side of Kevin Miyazaki’s Persons is the original poster which was posted in West Coast communities to notify Japanese Americans of their removal from their homes, apartments and farms. On the opposite side, the text is replaced by 527 Japanese surnames of families and individuals sent to the 10 concentration camps created by the United States government. The only remaining text from the original poster is PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY.
Without context, Miyazaki’s New American Pin can be read as a straightforward marker of patriotism. But the relationship between the slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” or just “Remember” is made ambiguous when one’s own identity as a citizen or resident is invalidated.
Mark Stockton (awaiting blurb)
Susan Hamburger works within the history of Western European decorative arts to explore themes of power. In The Supremes she depicts the six female Supreme Court Justices (out of 116 Justices who have served), painting their portraits on paperclay plates.
Susan Hamburger is represented by Asya Geisberg Gallery.
Renny Molenaar’s series Disappointing Patriotic Sex Paintings is a collection of works on fabric whose backgrounds are evocative of the United States flag. Some receive a treatment of plastic barrettes; some are painted with the word SEX; on some, as with the work in this show, he glues small dime bags containing objects and treasures collected on walks and in life. These found objects reference the lived experience of people in community, and serve to foreground and value the people over the patriotic symbolism of the flag.
Kara Mshinda moves across photo-weaving, collage, abstract drawing, and archival research to handle images the way an anthropologist handles artifacts, with curiosity, care, and a willingness to be changed by what they reveal. At the center of all of it is a process of fragmentation and reconstruction. In this exhibition we include:
a diptych consisting of Huey, a photocollage portrait of Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, and What We Want, the Black Panther Party’s 10-point program.
Far from Home (Sgt Crews), a mixed media portrait based on a photograph of the artist’s father c. 1960s.
I, Too, a mixed media piece constructed from denim, whose title references Langston Hughes's poem I, Too:
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Operating since 2009 out of a Mt. Airy carriage house, MAC (Mount Airy Contemporary) has focused on providing low key, high quality art experiences in an informal residential setting, and building strong, authentic connections between artists and audiences. Since 2021, the gallery has also mounted shows at miniMAC, a tiny dollhouse-sized exhibition space installed on the street.
MAC is an ongoing curatorial project by artist couple Andrea Wohl Keefe and Colleen Keefe.
Artwork shown in order from left to right in gallery.
