No Days Off, Unless..., collaged cyanotype, 2026
Join us for the opening of House of Blues, a new installation by Yannick Lowery, 2026 Artist in Residence.
The evening includes a live performance by Lowery, followed by an artist talk and Q&A.
We'll also screen an excerpt from With Love, West, a docuseries by jasmine lynea on the artists and creatives shaping West Philadelphia.
Free and open to all. Refreshments provided.
“One can only imagine what went on in the minds of those who spent their lives working at such estates as the Glen Foerd Mansion during America’s Reconstruction Era.” Such ideation is the genesis of Yannick Lowery’s House of Blues. Drawing from the duality of melancholy and hopefulness represented in the color blue, Lowery’s series of cyanotypes are informed by the irony of separation and duality of both living and working within a luxurious home environment, not as a participant in its luxuries but as a conduit of them.
Employing both Afrofuturism and a supplemental narrative style similar to scholar Saidiya Hartman’s “critical confabulation”, Lowery utilizes collage and cyanotypes to fill in the gaps of the estates archive with a narrative of dreams and destruction. House of Blues speculates how, behind hidden doors, in back stairways and separate quarters of the Glen Foerd estate, a world of emotions and imaginations existed in the minds of the domestic staff, affirming them in their vividness and in their humanity."
About Yannick Lowery
Yannick Lowery is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in Philadelphia, PA. Originally from New York City, he embraces both cities as cultural and creative influences, drawing on their rich and diverse visual art histories to fuel his practice. Yannick studied sculpture and design at The Atlanta College of Art (now SCAD) and Columbia College in Chicago. Yannick’s work often weaves together illustrated proverbs, premonitions, and historical references to guide viewers through cultural introspection and imaginative narratives. Using archival imagery and his own photography, he engages in world-building through collage, animation, cyanotypes, and sculptural pieces, creating thought-provoking and exploratory works.