COMMUNITY ART EXHIBITION
ROOTS
On Heritage, Interconnection, and the Ties That Bond Us
Event Schedule
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6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Thursday, September 4
Join us as we open the gallery doors to ROOTS for the very first time. The evening will spark dialogue and reflection, offering an early glimpse of the exhibition and a chance to meet the artists behind the work.At 7:00 PM, gather in the lobby for a toast to set the intention of the show, provide context for the space, and kick off the month of events to come.
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6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Friday, September 5FirstFridayDupont.org
First Friday Dupont: Art Walk offers the chance to explore art galleries, museums, and embassies around greater Dupont Circle for a monthly, self-guided, free art walk. September 2025, ROOTS can be found hosted at ADA Art Gallery. -
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Tuesday, September 9
LisaOsodel.com
Come as you are! This donation-based gathering, led by Osoluna Collective, is open to all. Surrounded by the artwork of the exhibition, you'll have the chance to experience ROOTS in dialogue with sound, spirit, and shared intention.
Through breathwork and sound frequencies, you'll be guided into deep relaxation. We invite your presence and energy into the space—to intertwine with the art and contribute to the experience we build together. -
7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
Saturday, September 13
ArtAllNightDupont.org
Catch ROOTS at the 12th annual Art All Night, DC’s free overnight arts festival presented by Mayor Muriel Bowser. ROOTS can be found at ADA Art Gallery, Location #1 of the Dupont Circle Neighborhood.The festival as a whole takes place September 12-13 from 7:00 PM to 3:00 AM the following morning, with different activations on each night, sharing the arts across all eight wards of the city. Be sure to check out the other participating neighborhoods: DCArtAllNight.org
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5 PM - 8 PM
Thursday, September 18
Visit ROOTS during September’s Third Thursday extended hours at ADA Art Gallery.
Stop by the other Third Thursday partners: The Phillips Collection, IA&A at Hillyer, Studio Gallery, Washington Studio School, Korean Cultural Center -
6 PM - 8:30 PM
Saturday, September 20Experience the final evening of ROOTS with our closing reception. This gathering offers a moment to honor the exhibition’s journey, reflect on the works shared, and strengthen the conversations they inspired.
Special activations to be announced.
September 4 - 20, 2025 | Washington, DC
ROOTS explores the deep and dynamic ways we engage with connection. Through the work of 11 featured artists, the exhibition invites reflection, celebration, and dialogue around themes of heritage, interconnection, and the ties that bond us.
Guided by three key lenses—tangible, transformed, and transmuted—ROOTS takes viewers on a journey through the invisible threads that connect us, encouraging all to look beyond the surface. By bringing our own perspectives into the space, we weave our experiences into the collective story, both within and beyond the gallery walls.
More information on the ROOTS story and digital catalog will be shared after the exhibition’s closing reception.
Featured Artists
Hailey Hartigan (Artist and Curator); Mireim Alibrahim; Eszter Bornemisza; Michael Dupuy; Sean Ferguson; Steven Kleinrock; Leah Lowery; Angela Muno; Lisa Osorio; Max Rykov; Colton Teri
Location:
ADA Art Gallery, Washington Center of ADA University
1627 21st Street NW Washington, DC
Featured Artists
Artist and ROOTS Curator
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Featured ArtistHailey Hartigan is an award-winning interdisciplinary designer, multichannel director, and mixed-media artist specializing in creative direction. Hailey believes in the power of design to connect, clarify, and make an impact. As an artist, Hailey’s work blends her strong background in design and media to produce work that explores perspective, emotion, collective consciousness, and art as both a catalyst for and pillar of community action.
ROOTS Curator
Founder of Hailey Hartigan Studios, a creative practice and production space, Hailey leads in curating exhibitions, organizing initiatives, and cultivating inclusive, accessible spaces where artists of all backgrounds can connect and grow.
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Featured ArtistMireim Alibrahim is a Maryland-based multidisciplinary artist, educator and public health professional whose work is deeply rooted in storytelling, ancestral connection and cultural identity. Through mixed media, Mireim celebrates her Middle Eastern heritage while addressing themes of resilience and growth. Her pieces invite viewers into a reflective space, encouraging them to explore their own identities and the invisible forces that shape them. This intersection drives her passion to illuminate invisible histories particularly those of Arab and immigrant communities.
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Featured ArtistEszter Bornemisza is a fiber artist based in Budapest, working with recycled paper, textiles, and discarded soft materials such as X-ray and integrated circuit films. Her primary techniques are printing, painting, and cutting, complemented by machine stitching. She creates large-scale installations, three-dimensional objects from handmade paper pulp and wall hangings.
Originally trained as a mathematician, Bornemisza began making art quilts in the mid-1990s as a self-taught artist, experimenting with the fusion of paper and cloth. More recently, she has focused on translucent wall hangings and installations created from newspaper and thread.
A long-standing theme in her work is urban existence. For over two decades, she has explored city maps—distorting, layering, and altering them into complex, transparent surfaces where shadows play an active role.
Her work has been exhibited in juried and solo shows worldwide, received awards, and appears in numerous art books, journals, museum, and private collections.
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Featured ArtistMichael is a graphic designer mostly recognized for and by his experiments with video poster design from Prince Edward County, Virginia. Michael graduated from Virginia Tech in 2021 with a BFA in Creative Technologies along with some of his colleagues he still closely works with today. He is the founder of The Peenut Gallery, LLC., a graphic design firm that provides visual communication services for other artists and small businesses. His animated personality helps him view design and art in a lively and uncanny way, and he translates that into his process and his work by creating fresh and unique compositions. He values the enjoyment of being present and aware of his personal interests and influences in Hip Hop, cartoons and video games. Michael believes he can inspire and lead a new movement with the help of his closest friends, authentic perspective, and curiosity towards new creative ideas and concepts.
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Featured ArtistBased in Washington, D.C., Sean Ferguson is an audio and music artist whose work provides a window into his past, exploring how sound has shaped his character. Inspired by artists such as Rick Rubin, Cortex, and The Alchemist, Sean pushes the boundaries of what sound can be, creating unique and compelling experiences. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, he holds a special place in his heart for artists who share his hometown and is heavily influenced by the city’s culture.
Sean believes that true masters are intentional with every move, avoiding unnecessary complexity and focusing on the core essence of their craft. This principle guides his artistic evolution as he continues to create and produce, proving that authenticity and careful consideration can produce powerful, enduring art. Sean’s work is a testament to the idea that some of the most profound stories are told through the simplest, most intentional sounds.
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Featured ArtistSteven Kleinrock explores landscape through a variety of media. Steven’s artistic practice has continued to evolve, building on many years of plein air painting—observing nature’s shifting colors, forms, and rhythms. Today, his work explores the materiality of painting, using color and light to evoke emotion rather than depict a specific place.
His process is meditative and spontaneous, often resulting in surprising color passages and abstract marks. Steven uses beeswax to eliminate the sheen of oil paint, creating a soft, tactile surface that intensifies pure color and evokes a sense of mystery and indeterminate space. Printmaking is also central to his practice. Techniques like monotype, spit-bite, and soap ground aquatint allow him to work in layers and embrace the unpredictability of traditional processes.
Steven is also a practicing architect, located in Washington DC. For nearly 5 decades Steven has been designing transformative and award-winning academic buildings for higher-education on campuses in the US and abroad.
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Featured ArtistLeah Lowery is a mixed-media artist based out of Hyattsville, MD. Lowery has attended school for studio art and has since participated in multiple group exhibitions in the DMV area. When not making art, she is aso passionate about reading, live-music experience and being in community with like-minded people who are passionate about spirituality.
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Featured ArtistAngela Muno is a designer based in Richmond, Virginia. As she spent the bulk of her childhood with her nose in a book, the pursuit of beauty and romanticism came naturally in adulthood. She is a self-taught sewist who is fascinated by the cyclical influences of culture and clothing, and the way that the production of both intersect with sustainability.
As an artist, Angela is driven by the examination of many modes of personal expression, particularly the way places, people, and time inform the garments we wear and the objects we cherish. She started her clothing brand, Common Mercury, in the hopes that the art created through textile mediums would inspire a more considerate and thoughtful approach to consumption.
May each piece serve as a reminder that a great many skilled and careful hands have touched every item of clothing ever made.
www.commonmercury.com
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Featured ArtistLisa Osorio is a Colombian-American visual artist, yoga instructor, and avid solo traveler. Through photography and yoga, she explores themes of mindful living, belonging, and identity. Her creative work often emerges from her travels across the globe, where she reconnects with ancestral roots and captures the subtleties woven into everyday life.
As both an artist and a guide for inner reflection, Lisa brings a contemplative lens to her photographs- seeking out moments that might go unnoticed without presence and curiosity.
Though raised primarily in the United States, Lisa’s work is deeply shaped by her Colombian heritage. She uses the camera as a tool for grounding, remembering, and expressing parts of her identity that continue to evolve.
She is currently curating a yoga and personal development retreat in Colombia that merges movement, cultural exploration, and identity discovery. Her work invites others to live with intention, curiosity, and connection wherever they go.
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Featured ArtistMax Rykov is a Ukrainian-born documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist who has lived in Washington, D.C. since 2006. He works with video, photography, and multi-channel installation to explore displacement, cultural memory, and the ways people adapt and endure across changing environments. Rykov’s award-winning short documentary Hindsight has screened at festivals across Europe and North America, and his photos have been featured by platforms like Forbes, New York Times, and The Washington Post. He is currently pursuing an M.S. in journalism at Columbia University.
www.rykovmax.com/
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Featured ArtistColton Teri (b. 1998) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Washington, D.C., working across painting, printmaking, collage, woodworking, and digital media. A graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art, Teri’s practice draws from the raw visual language of early 2000s counterculture, deeply influenced by SWINDLE magazine and artists like Shepard Fairey, Os Gêmeos, Barry McGee, and Swoon.
His work fuses graphic immediacy with layered storytelling, shaped by a lifelong fascination with subversion and public art. Though his style evolved during his time at Cooper and continues to shift, it remains rooted in street art and DIY visual culture.
Teri has exhibited independently with the support of friends and family, operating outside the gallery system. His exhibitions include Preservation (2023), 23 (2023), Hoop Dreams (2021), and Ready for Nothing (2020), among 6 others.