The exhibiting artists first met in January 2020, and as seemingly impossible new realities emerged, they did what artists in NYC’s radical history have done before them: collectivized. As they/their individual communities were impacted by COVID-19 and the fissures among the interconnected systems for justice, healthcare, and housing cracked wide-open, the artists in If You Can Make It held space for each other to be seen and heard with an understanding of cultural production as a form of survival.

The artists in the exhibition grapple with our complex new realities through paintings, videos, photographs, performance, installation and sculpture.  Major themes in the artworks include the African diaspora, anti-colonialism and decolonization, queerness and self, environmental justice, psychological interiors, feminism, and ritual.