Soft Spaces is a series of installations featuring works by alumni of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art Fellowship. The Fellowship is an international and intergenerational program of mentorship and collective learning that has centered LGBTQIA+ artists of color since its inception in 2017. Through professional development workshops and critical seminars by artists and theorists, the Fellowship supports participants as they develop the skills to establish a sustainable art practice while radically affirming identities through liberatory pedagogy.

The “softness” of the exhibitions’ title reflects artists’ experience of the Fellowship as a space for safety in process, experimentation, and vulnerability. Soft Spaces unfolds over time, presenting recent work by 38 artists from the 2019–20, 2020–21, and 2021–22 cohorts. These artists’ practices span digital and media art, painting, photography, filmmaking, performance, and installation.

Curated by Chloe Ming, Assistant Curator / Exhibitions Manager