Artifacts from an Unborn Empire opens September 26th at the Brand Library and Art Center in Glendale
Updated: Sep 10
Artifacts from an Unborn Empire
Group exhibition curated by Jason Jenn and Vojislav Radovanović
September 26 – December 31, 2026
Brand Library and Art Center
1601 W Mountain St, Glendale, CA 91201
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 26, 2026 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Ellen Jong: Another Mother, 2023 Ruben Esparza: Untitled (Flag 209), 2023 Ben Cuevas: Knit Skull, 2026
Featuring work by:
Aprille Curtis, Antonino Isaja-Formicca, Ben Cuevas, Cheyann Washington, Elana Mann, Ellen Jong, Francis Robateau, Gina Herrera, Greg Day, Hugo Heredia Barrera, Jason Jenn, Jason Trucco, Jotham Hung, Kayla Tange, Kristine Schomaker, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Nancy Kay Turner, Reyah, Robert Patrick, Rosalyn Myles, Rubén Esparza, Vojislav Radovanović
Curated by Jason Jenn and Vojislav Radovanović
Reyah: Becoming Reyah 2, 2023 Rubén Esparza: meso greco Cola DNA 122125, 2025 Cheyann Washington: Sprout, 2024
Glendale, CA - Artifacts from an Unborn Empire brings together twenty-three contemporary artists whose works examine how civilizations are imagined, constructed, documented, and remembered. Through installation, sculpture, photography, textile, video, archival materials, and mixed-media practices, the exhibition considers the forces that shape collective identity and asks who has the authority to define history, culture, and belonging.
Taking place during the United States Semiquincentennial, the exhibition reflects on the life cycles of nations and empires, while looking beyond established narratives towards alternative possibilities and artist revisions. The participating artists investigate the systems, symbols, myths, and material methods that societies use to understand themselves. Their works approach these questions through both critical and poetic lenses, exploring themes of colonialism, memory, inheritance, labor, migrations, language, and cultural mythmaking.
Greg Day: Stephen Varble at the The Chemical Bank Protest, 1976 Kristine Schomaker: Archive of Becoming, 1996-2025 Jotham Hung, ceramic Gina Herrera: The Ascended Witness, 2023 Antonino Isaia-Formicca: Imaginary Cities (200 handdrawn maps of imaginary locations), 1970-present
Specially conceived for the Brand Library and Art Center, the exhibition engages directly with the library as both a repository of knowledge and a living civic space. The project considers the evolving role of cultural institutions in shaping collective memory and facilitating the exchange of ideas. As contemporary methods of storing, organizing, and accessing information continue to transform, Artifacts from an Unborn Empire invites reflection on how histories are preserved, transmitted, and reimagined across generations.
Greg Day: Stephen Varble's Elizabethan Farthingdale dress, 1975 Elana Mann: The Past Is Happening All The Time, 2023 Kayla Tange: No Record, 2024
Central to the exhibition is an expansive approach to materiality. Industrial materials such as brick, clay, glass, and metal appear alongside books, journals, documents, photographs, letters, mementos, and other forms of everyday ephemera. Through processes of collecting, archiving, assembling, and transformation, the artists reveal how material culture functions as both evidence and invention, displaying lived experiences while generating new narratives.
Rather than presenting a singular vision of what constitutes a civilization, Artifacts from an Unborn Empire offers a constellation of unique perspectives that challenge familiar assumptions about power, progress, and permanence. The exhibition ultimately asks viewers to consider the foundations upon which societies are built, whom those structures benefit, what remains behind from the originators, and what may emerge in the future as culture constantly changes.