Echoes of the Heart: New England Media Art Biennial
Iwalani Kaluhiokalani, The Radiance Chasers, 2025. Multidisciplinary installation, painting, paper cut-outs, video mapping, sound Sound score by Slamber Slusser.
July 29 @ 12:00 pm – December 13 @ 6:00 pm
Emerson Contemporary – Emerson College’s platform for presenting contemporary visual art – proudly presents Echoes of the Heart: The New England Media Art Biennial, a multimedia juried group exhibition featuring New England visual artists Clint Baclawski, Erik DeLuca, Iwalani Kaluhiokalani, Justin Levesque, VHF Studios, and Karlie Zhao. The exhibition is on view in the Media Art Gallery at 25 Avery Street from July 29- December 13 , 2025, free and open to the public Tuesday – Saturday, 12-6 pm.
This exhibition is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts
New media art now encompasses traditional film and digital video, as well as a wide range of technology, from AI to hand-built radio, representing an exciting and rapidly expanding genre in the contemporary art world. Yet, there are few venues for emerging and mid-career video artists to showcase their work in New England. This biennial aims to expand these opportunities for the region and celebrate artists with financial and technical support and the opportunity to expand and reiterate existing and/or new works.
Artist Reception, Thursday, September 18, 5-7pm
Tuesday, October 7, 6:30- 7:30pm, 6pm doors. In Conversation: Join artists Justin Levesque and VHF Studio as they discuss their broad ranging practices and what it means to be a practicing artist in our current climates. Location: Media Art Gallery, 25 Avery Street, Boston, MA
Tuesday October 21, 6:30- 7:30pm, 6pm doors In Conversation: Join multidisciplinary installation artist Iwalani Kaluhiokalani and photographer Clint Baclawski as they discuss space, time, color and motion in their work. Location: Media Art Gallery, 25 Avery Street, Boston, MA
Tuesday, November 4, 6:30- 7:30pm, 6pm doors In Conversation: Join artists Erik DeLuca and Wenran Zhao as they speak with Emerson professor and sound artist Amber Vistein to discuss experimentation, sonic textures and the art of presence.
Our artist centered public programming is supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts.
Clint Baclawski is creating a new photographic sculptural installation part of his ongoing scroll series to consider the photographic impulse to capture the landscape as combined with the presentation strategies of advertising. Erik DeLuca is creating an interactive technology based object exploring silence and sound entitled White Spaces Radio. Iwalani Kaluhiokalani will combine innovative projection-mapping and sound to activate a challenging architectural area in the gallery’s entryway. Justin Levesque will reimagine his multimedia wall installation Geographical Problems for the Emerson space. VHF Studios will present a new iteration of their cheerfully riotous multi-media sculptural installation, Narcissus Looks Back: and They Love You. Karlie Zhao will create a site-specific piece for the windows facing Avery Street, and display her delicate, evocative piece Thread in the Air, which infinitely generates poetic texts through audience interaction.
Juried by Distinguished Curator-in-Residence Leonie Bradbury, Curator of Special Projects Shana Dumont Garr, and visual artist and curator Allison Maria Rodriguez, this exhibition recognizes the importance of contemporary new media art being created across the Northeast. Of the experience jurying, Allison Maria Rodriguez said:
“It’s been such an honor to be included in this process. It can sometimes feel like New England is dominated by more traditional artistic mediums – and that may be true – but it was so thrilling to see all the incredible new media artists working in the area that submitted to this call. The jury had a real challenge – in the best way! It proved that opportunities like this to showcase artists working in art and technology are so greatly needed, not only to support individual practices, but also to expand the conversation in the broader arts ecosystem – and I’m so grateful to the folks at Emerson Contemporary for making this happen!”
