new.now.
Hamiltonian Artists is thrilled to present new.now., our annual group exhibition debuting the work of distinguished 2024–2026 fellows: artists Sobia Ahmad, June Canedo De Souza, Jermaine “jET” Carter, Nilou Kazemzadeh, and Fargo Nissim Tbakhi. Each year, new.now. serves as a snapshot of the newest Hamiltonian Artists fellows’ creative practices, exhibiting the work they plan to expand upon during their two-year fellowship.
Looking to the stars and traversing into a forest of eyes, Ahmad’s analog photo and moving image-based works meditate on transcendental power within nature’s movements, cycles, and synchronicities. Canedo De Souza’s tactile paintings are inspired by the gestural and haptic conditions of her upbringing; she deploys childlike motifs and material-based poetics that are at once nostalgic and haunting. Carter works across two and three dimensional practices to illustrate alternate realities of everyday Black American struggles such as police brutality, food insecurity, and economic disadvantage. Honoring the necessity of care and community, Kazemzadeh’s installation-based sculptural and video works serve as sites to reflect on personal lineage and imagine collective futures in the wake of social and political upheaval. Drawing metaphors from ancient Greek tragedy, Tbakhi’s textual works on paper interrogate the policing of Palestinian grief while affirming the steadfast spirit that drives Palestine’s pursuit of liberation amid life under siege.
This presentation of new.now. conjures the feeling of moving through, and reaching toward. Each artist’s work begins to take on an almost fugitive character—at once urgent and hopeful. Fragments of childhood memories surface through oil pastels, wild clay, and colored pencils; glimmers of futurity flicker in moving images and plaster casts; portals of stained glass and collaged tunnels signal a way to go on, while the murkiness of mud-covered canvas and night skies leave destination and distance undetermined. While there is no telling where we will land—certainly nothing will remain the same.
Artists
Sobia Ahmad (b. 1992; Punjab, Pakistan) was raised in Pakistan and moved to the United States at the age of fourteen. Ahmad earned her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA (2024), and a BA in Studio Art from the University of Maryland, College Park (2016, 2015).
June Canedo de Souza (b. 1989; United States) is an artist currently based in New York. She earned her MFA from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and is an alumni of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME.
Jermaine “jET” Carter (b. 1998, Washington, DC) is an interdisciplinary artist from Southeast Washington, DC currently based in Alexandria, VA.. He earned his BFA from the the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY (2020).
Nilou Kazemzadeh (b. 1993, Maryland, US) is an Iranian American artist based in Maryland. She earned her BA in Studio Art and MA in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, PA.
Fargo Nissim Tbakhi (b. 1997, Riverside, California) is a Palestinian American interdisciplinary artist currently living and working in Washington, DC, on Piscataway and Nacotchtank land. He earned his BA in Theater from Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.