Dear friends,

Fifteen years ago, I took a leap into the unknown and opened a gallery—equal parts excitement, stubbornness, and an unshakable belief that art can change the way we see the world. Fifteen years later, I’m still here, still stubborn, and still convinced: every step has been worth it.

Our anniversary exhibition, Why We Do What We Do, is both a love letter and a wink. A love letter to the artists whose vision, rigor, and restless curiosity inspire me daily—and a wink to all of you who have cheered us on, challenged us, collected with heart, and made this journey richer than I could have imagined.

In the exhibition opening on September 11, we’ll be presenting earlier and new works by our artists Ulf Aminde, Annabel Daou, Elisa Giardina Papa, Šejla Kamerić, Kapwani Kiwanga, Laurel Nakadate, Grit Richter, Anna Steinert, Angelika J. Trojnarski and Anna Witt, each accompanied by a statement in their own words—on what drives them, why they create, and what keeps them coming back to the studio, again and again. Why do we do what we do? Because art matters. Because equality and diversity matter. Because conversations sparked by art can ripple out into the world in ways that shift, disrupt, and reimagine. And because—let’s be honest—there’s nothing quite like standing in front of a work that makes your heart beat faster.

So let’s celebrate: fifteen years of bold choices, fearless collaborations, and the many adventures still ahead. I can’t wait to share this moment with you.

Love,
Tanja*

Excerpts from the artists’ own reflections on the works on view follow here. They can also be read on the walls of the gallery:

“Can we still engage in artistic work in the face of past and current disasters? What does hope mean from the perspective of my practice?” – Ulf Aminde



“The image of the globe thistle (native to Lebanon) harks back to my early paintings before language entered and gradually erased the image. It found its way into my work again over this past year as it has once or twice before in times of struggle and turmoil. Here, the thistles, indigenous markers of place, concealing, disrupting and replacing language, become netlike in their interlacement. They conjure barriers or boundaries across the block-like grid structure. The sentences spanning the surface of the piece felt like a way to expand the space into a bigger story, the story of a life, of so many lives. The letters themselves push out to meet and wrestle with the sharp spikes of the strange flowers, for me symbols of a fragile tenacity.” – Annabel Daou

“When the Towel Drops is both a critical inquiry into the censorship of postwar Italian cinema and a manifestation of Radha May’s collective practice. The work recovers censored representations of female and queer bodies/desires, exposing the institutional strategies through which cultural memory has been disciplined. Its significance also lies in its collective nature: the piece is the outcome of a collaboration spanning New York, Palermo, Kampala, and New Delhi. This spatial and cultural dispersion not only frames the research process but also constitutes the very condition through which these hidden histories have been re-examined and re-activated. The work is as much a meditation on the politics of visibility as it is a celebration of the generative possibilities of collective authorship. Presented here are three frames from the original film installation.” – Elisa Giardina Papa



“The answer must be another question: How could we not care?” – Šejla Kamerić



“My practice is driven by simple questions and observing what’s around me, so it’s quite varied. It could be inspired by a conversation I have with somebody, or reading a newspaper article, or simply moving through the world and noticing things and asking a question.” – Kapwani Kiwanga



“In many ways nothing has changed since I made this video, which was a commentary on images of mothers and motherhood in contemporary media made in response to a viral video circulating at the time. I wanted to speak about the discomfort and humor of pregnancy and the worries and fears that can surround the unknown. What has changed in the almost decade since I made this video is that there has been more conversation around issues surrounding motherhood and a path has opened for those conversations. We still have so much work to do though, and that is why this work still feels important and relevant when I revisit it now, nearly a decade later.” – Laurel Nakadate



“My artistic practice is rooted in a fundamental question: how can inner, often elusive processes—emotions, memories, unconscious states—be translated into a visual language? These invisible realms of experience shape our sense of self, yet resist rational description. Art, for me, becomes a vessel to give them form—not as clear representations, but as gestures of approach, making the unseen felt.
This work explores intimacy and closeness, but also exhaustion, support, and dynamics of power. It is profoundly physical and full of presence, yet at the same time fragile and intimate. The painting reflects on the ambivalences within our emotional and physical relationships.” – Grit Richter



“Colors are a powerful medium. I throw myself into the physical act of painting, following the uncertain path they open up, with all the failures it brings, the anger and destruction, and the constant, tender act of beginning again and again. Each painting rekindles the hope for new adventures.” – Anna Steinert



“The painting is born from my deep engagement with nature’s elemental forces and shaped by my research trips to wildfire sites. I portray a tree that once stood tall and mighty and now finds itself ablaze. In this act, I stand alongside all who care for nature and are empowered by its majesty, affirming resilience in place of despair.” – Angelika J. Trojnarski



“Unter Druck is a textile collage made from caregivers’ workwear, sandwiched between sheets of acrylic glass. The piece draws from choreographic elements developed in collaboration with a group of care workers, addressing the ongoing crisis in the caregiving sector—a crisis that has deepened since the liberalization of healthcare systems. This period of austerity and cost-cutting has further devalued care labor, a field historically marginalized for its associations with femininity and its classification as ‘unproductive’ within neoliberal economies.
Grounded in the workers’ personal experiences of a collapsing system, the collaboration gave rise to a choreography that intertwined fictional coping mechanisms with a reimagining of inherited norms and values shaping the sector. Unter Druck materializes fragments of that choreography: the absent bodies and their limitations are transfigured into a hybrid form, where gesture and fabric merge into an imagined corporeality.” – Anna Witt