The Heart

When I get to know people I like to get to know their color palettes

What is your favorite color is a serious question

My palette right now is:

red, black, brown, warm beige, gold, and forest green

Red is my essence

Red means I love you, I'm angry, and pay attention

Red is vibrance, a yield of abundance, with red we carry on

Red is watermelon flesh and a brick house

Red is golden hour sky, duvet cover and curtains, wildfire imminent

Red in hand, hematite, clay, terracotta

Redshift of universe past, bloodshed red remembers

a field of poppies, tulips, roses, and birds of paradise

Red is the longest wavelength, and the heart,

a thread and a vein connecting me to you

Red says yes it is, a constant struggle for freedom

Red energy is eager not hateful, see red and take care

Red rage insists on life, Red's flag waves

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The Heart is an exhibition of artists who use the wisdom of the color red in ways that transmit the level of emotion needed to face the past, present and build the world we dream of.

Hacer Acma
Luis Estrada
Felicia Griffin
Shana Harper
Peter Harris
James Heartsill
Halisi Noel-Johnson
Jason Powell-Smith
Dorian Reid
Julio Del Rio
Shantae Robinson
Carlota Rodriguez
Joseph Rux
Alice Sampson
Esmeralda Silva
Guadalupe Soto

Alex Dolores Salerno is an interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY) in Turtle Island in Abya Yala. Their practice is informed by “queer-crip” community, and the radical shifts necessary to center interdependence and nurture connections to the earth. Salerno received their MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, and they have exhibited at Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt), Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT), Brooklyn Museum, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (NYC), among others. They have been awarded a Wynn Newhouse Award (2022) and an Art Matters Foundation Artist2Artist Fellowship (2023). Salerno's most recent residences include the Visual Artist AIRspace Residency at Abrons Arts Center (2022-2023), the BRIClab: Contemporary Art Residency Program at BRIC (2023-2024), and the LMCC Workspace Residency at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2024-2025).