OH Art Foundation is pleased to announce Island from a Faltering Empire, an exhibition Curated by Jonah Sanderson.

The Islands from a Faltering Empire exhibition brings together Filipino (Sophie deJesus, Camilla Williamson, and Diwa Oro), Hawaiian (Luluka Brown-Spielman), and Puerto Rican (Isabel Padilla-Bonelli) artists based in the Chicago to draw attention to shared, lived histories of imperialism.Even after Filipino independence in 1946, the status of Puerto Rico as a commonwealth in 1952, and Hawaiian statehood in 1959, the shadow of the American Empire still exerts pressure on diasporic islander bodies and minds. The works present American histories as decentered and individualized, grounded by each artist’s approach to the self, identity, and trauma. Curated by Jonah Sanderson, the exhibition is unified with American critiques to imperial histories, a timely inquiry that ties into the ongoing humanitarian injustices enacted by the nation today. The exhibition promotes underrepresented islander narratives from the Philippines and draws connections outside of Asia into Hawai’i and Puerto Rico. These non-regional connections contribute to new ways of viewing overlooked chapters of the American story. Islands From a Faltering Empire explores how the history of colonization still affects artists in the United States— investigating how imperial exploitation lives on through political corruption, cultural erasure, and even architectural infrastructure. As an agent for social change, the exhibition amplifies the voices of the artists in their call for recognition, solidarity, and revolution.

About the Curator

Jonah Sanderson (he/they) is an art historian and curator from Hickory, NC, based in Chicago whose practice centers Filipino visual culture. As an MA student in SAIC’s Modern/Contemporary Art History program, his writing and curatorial work advocates for underrepresented Filipino and diaspora artists to bring awareness to Southeast Asian artistic narratives in the Global North. As the result of recent field work in Manila and Baguio, their ongoing Master’s Thesis questions how Filipino art collectives approach kapwa (an indigenous, psychological concept of the self in the other) and how these collaborative artworks meet the community to activate social change. Recent select writing includes his “A Hero for All Filipinos: Chicago’s Dr. José Rizal Monument,” publicized by the Filipino American Council of Greater Chicago’s Rizal Center and “Between Baguio and Chicago: Santiago Bose’s Postcolonial Art” in the Chicago Journal of Visual Art.

Islands from a Faltering Empire

Curated by Jonah Sanderson

August 21–September 13, 2026

3314 S Morgan st Chicago – Storefront Gallery

Official Website

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Tags: Camilla Williamson, Diwa Oro, Isabel Padilla Bonelli, Islands from a Faltering Empire, Jonah Sanderson, Luluka Brown-Spielman, OH Art Foundation, Sophie deJesus