Once upon these times, not once upon a time, safely tucked into the past, but now, in the tense and unresolved present twenty-five Black artists working across painting, drawing, and sculpture come together to ask what has become of the body politic. The phrase itself is old, borrowed from centuries of political and sociological thought: a society imagined as a single human body, its citizens and institutions functioning as organs and limbs, each with its own role, its own responsibility to the whole.

Roho Collective has convened this annual group show for years as a space where Black artists can speak plainly, collectively, and without translation. This year's exhibition continues that tradition while sharpening its focus. The artists gathered here are not being asked to illustrate a theme handed down to them; they are being asked what they are already seeing, feeling, and carrying and the resulting body of work reflects the full range of that experience. There is anger here, and there is tenderness. There is exhaustion, and there is defiance. There is mourning for what has been erased, and there is insistence on what remains.

The title's temporal twist, Once Upon These Times, rather than Once Upon a Time is intentional. Fairy tales promise distance: a story that happened long ago, safely resolved, available for moral instruction without personal risk. This exhibition refuses that distance. The times under examination are not once-upon; they are now-upon. The body in crisis is not a symbol borrowed from history it is the body walking through this gallery, reading this same news. By insisting on the present tense, the exhibition asks viewers to sit with discomfort rather than resolve it, to recognize the current moment as one still being written, still open to intervention.

This exhibition asks its audience to look closely not away at the condition of the body we all share, however unevenly its burdens and benefits are distributed. It is an exhibition built on the belief that Black artists have always been among the most precise diagnosticians of American life, and that their work, gathered together in this space, offers not just critique but a form of collective care.

Yvette Griffea-Gray • Ron Brown • Delsita Day • Teneka Graves • Christopher E. Harrison • Leetta Douglas • Stephanie Watts • Elisa Gusdal • Loretta Day • Jordan Q.Johnson • Esther Osayande Barbara Thomas • Tacoumba Aiken • Ariane Jackson Christopheraaron Deanes • Stephanie Gandy

Christopher E Harrison • Jordan Johnson • TaCoumba T. Aiken• Christopheraaron Deanes

Design by Leeya Rose Jackson