BROOKLYN — The St. Francis College (SFC) Art Gallery presents a new group exhibition, “Home Is…”, which is scheduled to open Tuesday, February 13, through Friday, May 31, 2024, at the College’s fifth-floor art gallery and library.

Working in a variety of media, the exhibiting artists in “Home Is…” orient viewers to the structural and sentimental aspects of the concept of home. According to the exhibition’s curator, Bianca Mońa,“Home can be one’s place of birth or the place to which one resettles. It is often considered one’s center, the place where one is affirmed, welcomed, embraced, and able to be oneself. It doesn’t involve pretense; it’s authentic, at least in the very best cases. Yet the idea of home is complicated and nuanced, conjuring a multitude of memories and emotions. Though the thought of home has the potential to unleash warm sentiments, homes are constantly being built, demolished, or added on to as our needs and desires change. Home can be a place we run to — or run from.”

Inspired by the current and ongoing global movement of people searching for and creating new homes in foreign lands, the artists whose work is featured in “Home Is…” offer concrete ways to engage with one’s local environment and overcome feelings of apathy, complacency, and hopelessness. Some attempt to promote dialogue around divisive issues related to the concept of home, while others grapple with home as a physical space or a dwelling: the building materials, the shape, and the size. Home also encompasses people, rituals, food, language, and public meeting spaces. Ultimately, it is an amalgamation of spaces, people, sights, sounds, scents, and objects, all of which shape our well-being as well as our physical and spiritual development. These myriad themes are explored in the exhibition.

Participating Artists in “Home Is…” are Steve Anolik, Meg Boe Birns, Linda Fernandez, Rich Garr, Denae Howard, Anya Iovanov, David Iovanov, Walis Johnson, Alexander Kustanovich, M. Carmen Lane, AnnaMaria Leal, Ayanna Legros, Juan Luis Matos, Joel Mentor, Clarivel Ruiz, and Michael Wolf.

“Home Is…” was curated by Bianca Mońa. As an artist, curator, arts educator, and advocate, she has initiated several projects at institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Market Photo Workshop (Johannesburg, South Africa). An oral history–centered sound artist, Mońa has received commissions from The Laundromat Project and Culture Push, both based in Brooklyn. She holds a bachelor’s degree in arts administration from Dillard University and two master’s degrees — one in art education, the other in interdisciplinary studies — from San Jose State University and Teachers College at Columbia University, respectively. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados.

“Home Is…” is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Visitors must check in at the concierge desk in the street-level lobby of the St. Francis College campus, located at 179 Livingston Street in downtown Brooklyn.

For 165 years, St. Francis College has provided a diverse student body, from Brooklyn and around the world, an affordable private college education rooted in the Franciscan values of inclusivity and respect for all people. Located in the heart of Brooklyn — minutes from Wall Street, world-class cultural institutions, and leading entrepreneurial hubs — it offers more than 70 undergraduate majors and six master’s degree programs that inspire lifelong learning and prepare students for fulfilling careers in the 21st-century global economy.