Announcing the 2025 Fay Chandler Emerging Art Exhibition Award Winners

Now until January 30, 2026, the City Hall Galleries are full of contemporary artworks by local emerging artists, providing a diverse survey of the up-and-coming talent in our city’s creative sector. This is the Fay Chandler Emerging Art Exhibition, a show inspired by the story of Fay Chandler, a Boston philanthropist and arts advocate who began her artistic journey later in life, and is a symbol of inspiration and perseverance for our community.

Thanks to the generosity of the Fay Chandler family, we awarded six emerging artists featured in the show with cash prizes, juried by local art professionals. Keep reading to learn more about the selected artworks!

 

Best in Show ($3,000): Miguel Caba (Jamaica Plain)

Artwork: Mothers / Gardens, 2024, Acrylic on wood, 8 x 10 x 10 in. (each).

"These paintings depict photos my mother and grandmother sent to me from their homes in Canada and the Philippines respectively,” Miguel shared. “Using a laser engraver I was able to mechanically reproduce these images with all their visual artifacts, from my grandma’s shaky hands to the low camera quality, allowing me to view their worlds literally through their lenses. The paintings fit together to form boxes inspired by the shipping of goods, specifically in Balikbayan boxes (balikbayan loosely translates to: returning home) which Filipino workers abroad send back home to their loved ones as reminders of love, despite being so physically far away. Conveying an act of gift giving and care, the paintings embrace each other as they fit into this box shape in anticipation for travel."

 

50+ ($2,000): Pam Goncalves (Dorchester)

Artwork: Ritual Broom, 2023, Wood, broom straw, fabric, feathers, cowrie shells, 48 in.

Pam Goncalves is a Boston-born, Cambridge-raised artist whose work explores memory, ancestry, and the endurance of Black and Brown communities. Using organic and found materials such as wood, feathers, books, and rust, she creates installations that function as shrines and vessels of storytelling, honoring untold histories and spiritual traditions. This broom carries cleansing protection and ancestral presence. Wrapped in indigo cloth and adorned with cowrie shells and feathers, it becomes both a household tool and a sacred vessel sweeping away negative energy while honoring memory spirit and tradition.

 

New Voice ($2,000): Ava Chapman (Wellesley)

Artwork: Female Poets of Antiquity, 2023, Typewriting on paper, 3 x 2 in.

This piece was developed from the question "what body of information is small enough to fit in a miniature book?" The number of known female poets from Ancient Greece and Rome is miniscule, and we know very little about each of them. This lack of information has led scholars (and enthusiasts) to speculate about their appearance, family, biography, and death. This book attempts to present only the information we are certain of, thus highlighting the amount of information that has been presumed.

 

Juror's Choice ($500): Yanna Marie Orcel (Saugus)

Artwork: Mother's Garden, 2023, Collage, 14 x 11 in.

This collage highlights the maternal love that exudes from Black mothers while questioning imagery that has historically surrounded the ideas of Black motherhood. The pure love that is shared between mother and children includes feelings of gratitude, blossoming hope for the future, and growth; reflective of nature. 

 

Juror's Choice ($500): Marisa McCarthy (Andover)

Artwork: Peineta, 2023, Fine silver, 7 x 4 x 0.5 in. 

"This piece combines the traditional Spanish peineta hair comb design with Indian mehndi patterns to create a multicultural heirloom,” Marisa shared. “My work is concerned with issues of cultural formation through colonization, immigration, and assimilation pertaining to the mixed-race American experience. Through the creation of new multicultural family heirlooms, I replace and reconnect the elements of my Indian and Spanish cultural ancestry which have been lost and obscured by interweaving elements of the visual traditions of my mixed heritage."

 

Juror's Choice ($500): Andrew Zou (Jamaica Plain)

Artwork: Home Home of Andrew from China, 2024, Photography, Archival Inkjet Print, 24 x 30 in. 

"In this photograph, I projected an image of my hometown in South China onto my current bedroom in Boston, then rephotographed it with a large-format camera,” Andrew shared. “By collapsing two distant places into a single frame, I explore homesickness, displacement, and belonging as a Chinese artist living in Boston. Using layered projection to create a scene where past and present, here and there; converge, this photograph carries the weight of cultural memory and home."

 

A special thanks to our jurors: 

• Luisa Castellanos, Art Consultant at Powell Fine Art Advisory
• Amor Diaz-Campos, Curatorial & Development Coordinator for the Boston Public Art Triennial
• Gabrielle Domb, art historian and former Executive Director at the Brookline Arts Center

 

Photos by Ally Schmaling (@allyschmalingphotography).