City Hall Galleries

• Location: Emerging Gallery, 8th Floor
• Dates: November 6 - December 30, 2023

 Ileana Doble Hernandez started a series of staged photographs called Animal Nature, based on the disturbing relationship we have with animals, on the way we categorize them. Some are beloved companions while others do work for us, are our food or both. We create objects that represent them, we give them names and personalities, yet we eat them. The Algerian-French philosopher Jacques Derrida explains how distinguishing them as animals allows us to justify the violence we inflict upon them. 

To learn more or inquire to purchase this art, contact (ile@ileanadobleh.com)

• Location: Mezzanine Gallery, 3rd Floor
• Dates: November 6 - December 30, 2023

This show explores concepts of people and place, those who are often out of sight and out of mind. Tapping into the experience of modern Native culture and community, artist Hartman Deetz from the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe hopes to highlight the need to increase visibility of threatened populations in spaces where decisions are made. The works feature subjects of Native people and their reciprocal relationship with the natural world through song, ceremony, sustainable harvest, and respect for all life. 

Hartman Deetz is a lifelong artist born into the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. An interdisciplinary artist, Deetz has spent years refining his skills in the realm of traditional cultural arts such as soapstone and wampum copperwork and woodcarving, but has always produced more contemporary art works as well such as screen printing linocuts and acrylic paintings on canvas. Deetz is also a performing artist who has performed internationally as a part of the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers, and as a playwright and stage actor with the Wampanoag Storytellers. 

To learn more or inquire to purchase his art, contact: hartman.deetz429@gmail.com.

Location: The Mayor’s Office Gallery, 5th Floor

Dates: November 6 - December 30, 2023

Yalun Li is an artist and an architect. Born in Beijing, China, she now lives and works in Boston and New York. She holds a Master of Architecture II degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her works investigate the threshold between the mundane and the fantastical with various mediums, including texts, prints, and paintings. The exhibition contains a series of prints and acrylic paintings that explore how architecture and space can transcribe narratives, imaginations, and emotions. 

To learn more or inquire to purchase this art, contact: yalunli12@gmail.com or 617-794-1005

• Location: The Mayor’s Office Gallery (display case), 5th Floor 
• Dates: November 6 - December 30, 2023

Janet Hansen Kawada's work explores relationship of texture, color and narrative through fibers. The Home series is an ongoing body of work that explores the concepts of what home is, how we carry it, and where it resides. The small representations of home draw their inspiration from the nomadic yurt. That round structure encloses a dwelling which on the outside may be plain but inside holds all the possessions of the family. The yurt needs a group of people to erect it and move it as they move in their life cycle. This necessitates the group communicating and working with each other to survive in the community.

To learn more or inquire to purchase this art, contact:  Jkawada@usa.net 

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• Location: 3rd Floor Mezzanine, Boston City Hall
• Dates: Ongoing

We Belong is a light-based public art installation with the intent to promote ideas of belonging and inclusion among communities in Boston. In LED neon, the work forms the text “We Belong – here – together – guided by the same stars” in a circular format, with a constellation that maps and connects Boston’s neighborhoods.

With the support of a City of Boston Transformative Public Art grant, the installation will travel to multiple Boston neighborhoods in 2022-2023, beginning with the East Boston Social Centers from July-September 2022. Local residents are invited to participate in the project by sharing what the concept of “belonging” means to them.

Yu-Wen Wu is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Boston. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Wu’s subjectivity as an immigrant is central to her artwork. Arriving in the United States at an early age, her experiences have shaped her work in areas of migration—examining issues of displacement, arrival, assimilation, and the shape of identity in a new country. Passionate about data, mapping, and its storytelling, Wu’s work lies at the crossroads of art, science, politics, and social issues. Her wide range of projects include large-scale drawings, sculpture, site- specific video installations, community-engaged practices, and public art. Wu has been awarded numerous grants, exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work is included in several private and public collections.

The Mayor's Poetry Program is an annual program in which Boston residents are invited to submit poems to be displayed throughout City Hall and in an online gallery for one year. The theme for 2023, selected by Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola, was "Love".

Read the 2023 Poems