7th Annual AnkhLave Garden Project Exhibition Governors Island, New York | 2025 Curatorial Statement by Dario Mohr

To gain ground is to claim space, assert presence, and move forward despite forces that seek to hold us back. It is an act of resistance, resilience, and self-determination, which is a declaration that our stories, identities, and cultural legacies deserve not only to exist, but to flourish.

Gaining Ground explores the transformative power of occupying space, both physically and symbolically. Presented on Governors Island, the exhibition brings together contemporary artistic practices that challenge historical exclusion, confront marginalization, and reclaim visibility for narratives too often pushed to the periphery.

For Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, taking up space carries particular significance within an art world historically shaped by unequal access to representation and institutional recognition. Through creative expression, participating artists assert their agency and transform acts of resistance into declarations of belonging and cultural continuity. Governors Island, a landscape shaped by centuries of transformation and layered histories, provides a compelling setting for examining relationships between land, identity, ownership, and collective memory. Gaining Ground invites audiences to consider what it means to establish roots where one’s presence has historically been overlooked or contested. Beyond resistance, the exhibition envisions claiming space as an opportunity for empowerment, growth, and lasting cultural transformation.

Ultimately, occupying space becomes a creative act through which new possibilities for representation and belonging can take root.