USA?
MAC (Mount Airy Contemporary)
25 West Mt. Airy Avenue, Philadelphia PA 19119
11/6/2026 - 12/18/2026
Reception November 6th from 6-9 PM
Gallery hours: by appointment
www.mountairycontemporary.com
Phone: (267) 270-2787
Email: info@mountairycontemporary.com
MAC is pleased to present USA?, an exhibition of works by Renny Molenaar, Kara Mshinda, Talia Greene, Mark Stockton, Susan Hamburger and Kevin Miyazaki. USA? explores themes of identity, belonging, power, oppression and liberation as they relate to the notion of a United States of America.
In Talia Greene’s work Precarious Balance, native North American birds including the now extinct Passenger Pigeon, are meticulously rendered in empty spaces, save for suggestions of architectural remains. Their detailed rendering, reminiscent of 19th century illustrations that naturalists intended as a faithful document of animals in their natural habitat, belies their unnatural activities. Here they are perched atop one another, scrambling for prominence. The birds seem forced into unsustainable positions, perhaps as a consequence of diminishing space. The idea of an environment out of whack is taken to a place of absurdity.
The paintings in this series were developed while researching the flora and fauna of pre-colonial Manhattan (known as Mannahatta), and the impact of the city grid as it grew from the southern tip to the northern end of the city. The extinction of the Passenger Pigeon corresponds almost perfectly with the year that the first street reach the northern most point of Manhattan.
On one side of Kevin Miyazaki’s Persons is the original poster which was posted in West Coast communities to notify Japanese Americans of their removal from their homes, apartments and farms. On the opposite side, the text is replaced by 527 Japanese surnames of families and individuals sent to the 10 concentration camps created by the United States government. The only remaining text from the original poster is PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY.
Without context, Miyazaki’s New American Pin can be read as a straightforward marker of patriotism. But the relationship between the slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” or just “Remember” is made ambiguous when one’s own identity as a citizen or resident is invalidated.
In his large vertical diptych drawing Two Flags, Mark Stockton presents two distinctly American symbols formatted into the size of common household flags that have been drawn with graphite on Arches paper mounted on panel - above, the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and below and a realistic version of the coiled snake from the Gadsden Flag.
Timothy McVeigh targeted the Federal Murray building because it housed branches of both the FBI and ATF, which he believed were infringing on the second amendment. What became the largest domestic terrorist attack was timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the Waco siege and the 220th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first engagements of the American Revolutionary War.
The Gadsden Flag originated during the American Revolutionary War and became one of the most popular symbols of the revolution. In current times it has now become a popular symbol of the far right, representing libertarianism and anti-government groups like the Tea Party. In this depiction, the snake has been turned upside down to produce a shape reminiscent of a tornado or a corkscrew, tapering up into the destroyed facade represented in the upper flag. This iteration of the flag does not include the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.”
Susan Hamburger works within the history of Western European decorative arts to explore themes of power. In The Supremes she depicts the six female Supreme Court Justices (out of 116 Justices who have served), painting their portraits on paperclay plates.
The Supremes were created for a 2020 exhibition at 601artspace entitled “49.5,” referring to the then-current percentage of women in global population. The show’s guiding question was: if women represent half the world’s inhabitants, why do they hold, proportionately, so few positions of power? With only six female justices ever to serve on the highest court in the US, we may well ask the same question.
Susan Hamburger is represented by Asya Geisberg Gallery.
Renny Molenaar’s Nickels and Dimes, An All American Diary is part of a body of work that intertwines current urban anthropology and Molenaar’s personal obsessive accumulations and collections of random, sometimes autobiographical, occasionally iconic objects that fit in the tiny zip-lock bags that were once used to sell pot (marijuana), juxtaposed to the American flag, as the ground where all of our stories are played on.
Kara Mshinda moves across photo-weaving, collage, abstract drawing, and archival research to handle images the way an anthropologist handles artifacts, with curiosity, care, and a willingness to be changed by what they reveal. At the center of all of it is a process of fragmentation and reconstruction. In this exhibition we include:
a diptych consisting of Huey, a photocollage portrait of Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, and What We Want, the Black Panther Party’s 10-point program.
Far from Home (Sgt Crews), a mixed media portrait based on a photograph of the artist’s father c. 1960s.
I, Too, a mixed media piece constructed from denim, whose title references Langston Hughes's poem I, Too:
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Operating since 2009 out of a Mt. Airy carriage house, MAC (Mount Airy Contemporary) has focused on providing low key, high quality art experiences in an informal residential setting, and building strong, authentic connections between artists and audiences. Since 2021, the gallery has also mounted shows at miniMAC, a tiny dollhouse-sized exhibition space installed on the street.
MAC is an ongoing curatorial project by artist couple Andrea Wohl Keefe and Colleen Keefe.