new.now. (2023)

new.now., our annual group exhibition, debuts the work of Hamiltonian’s distinguished 2022–2024 fellows—artists Misha Ilin, Madyha J. Leghari, Edgar Reyes, Abed Elmajid Shalabi, and Isabella Whitfield. Each year, new.now. serves as a snapshot of the five newest Hamiltonian artists’ creative practices, exhibiting the work they plan to expand upon during their two year fellowship.

This year the group exhibition sorts through various systems of order/disorder, grappling with what is left. New technologies emerge, languages are lost, oceans rise, and empires fall. Through video, sculpture, digital collage, performance, and installation, each artist engages a shared line of inquiry: what remnants do we hold on to, and attempt to make new? what gets shoved under the rug, rather than thrown away for good?

The predominantly multinational group of artists—who now reside in the region between Richmond and Baltimore—are also breaking new ground in the history of Hamiltonaian Artists’ fellowship program. We look forward to presenting works that, in conversation, reflect various areas of common ground across diasporic perspectives, from Guadalajara, Mexico, to Lahore, Pakistan.

Artists

Misha Ilin (b. 1985; Protvino, Russia) earned his Master’s in Mathematics and Informatics from the National University of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia, and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2016).

Madyha J. Leghari (b. 1991) earned her BFA at the National College of Arts, Lahore (2013), and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2018) on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Edgar Reyes (b. Guadalajara, Mexico; lives and works in Baltimore, MD) earned his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2014), and BA in Graphic Design and Photography from Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, VA (2012).

Abed Elmajid Shalabi (b. 1991) is a Palestinian Israeli artist, living and working in Richmond, Virginia. Shalabi earned his MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA (2021), and BFA in Fine Arts from Shenkar College of Engineering, Design, and Art, Ramat Gan, Israel (2019).

Isabella Whitfield (b. 1998; Centreville, VA) earned her BFA and BA at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (2020), and completed the postgraduate Aunspaugh Fifth Year Fellowship.