HERE NOW and THEN: Tanya Weddemire Gallery and Hamilton-Selway Fine Art

Mickalene Thomas, You're Gonna Give Me the Love I Need, 2010, Collaged handmade paper with silkscreened pigment paper pulp, pochoir, digital print, and applique of cloth, 24 x 30 inches, Edition of 40, courtesy Hamilton-Selway Fine Art

By VICTOR SLEDGE February 23, 2026

Across the Black Diaspora, what does it look like to be alive right now? How is today contextualized in the memories of yesterday? And what legacies will be left across the diaspora in the future? 

These are all questions artists are exploring in the upcoming exhibition HERE NOW and THEN from Tanya Weddemire Gallery and Hamilton-Selway Fine Art in Los Angeles. The exhibition opens February 25th in the midst of Frieze Los Angeles and capping Black History Month. 

The show is on view through March 15th and boasts work from both established, big-name artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julie Mehretu, Mickalene Thomas and Kehinde Wiley, as well as emerging and mid-career artists like Gregory Saint Amand, Moses Salihou, O’Neil Scott, Floyd Strickland and Candice Tavares.

“I’m Jamaican. I’m an immigrant. I’m a lover of the arts,” says Tanya Weddemire, founder of Tanya Weddemire Gallery. “So cultural caretaking is very important to me, and everything I do has to have context. HERE NOW and THEN is definitely about centering that context.”

The exhibition is a collaboration between Tanya Weddemire and Ron Valdez, owner of Hamilton-Selway Fine Art, an LA-based art advisory and secondary-market gallery, specializing in pop and contemporary art and leaning into the blue chip artists audiences can look forward to seeing in the exhibit.

Candice Tavares, Inside, 2025, Mixed Media on Panel, 24" x 34", courtesy Tanya Weddemire Gallery.

“It all started with Ron being a patron and collector of the art in my gallery,” says Weddemire about their collaboration. “He’s a great lover of art, and I loved his mission and what he stands for and champions in others.” 

This collaboration bloomed out of the organic relationship between Weddemire and Valdez, who both share a love of art and a dedication to lifting often quieted voices in that space. 

Valdez says, “My passion is looking at underserved communities, so I like to look at artists from different communities. During this political climate, I’m focusing on ways to uplift Black and Brown communities.” 

For Valdez, his career in and outside of art has been community-based, doing work in politics and the nonprofit world while also being a champion of Black and Brown art both locally and internationally. 

Weddemire says, “When I find a partnership with someone like Ron, who champions that message, then, wholeheartedly, I am going to work on those projects.”

With a decades-long resume of showing up for the marginalized voices in his orbit, it’s no wonder that an exhibit based on cultural caretaking and preservation made the perfect opportunity for Valdez to team up with Weddemire, who has a special connection to this work as well.

Weddemire’s intersection of identities makes her a unicorn in the art world, and it reflects what audiences will see in HERE NOW and THEN.

Moses Salihou, We Are One, 2025, Acrylic on Paper, 32” x 40”, courtesy Tanya Weddemire Gallery

The combination of artists present in the show are all Black, and that’s maybe one of the few aspects of the exhibit that fully unifies them. Multicultural, multigenerational, international,  the artists in HERE NOW and THEN add to the message of the exhibit by virtue of their mixed identities and the kaleidoscopic nature of these identities coming into conversation with one another. 

“I come from a place with an open mindset and open thinking, so I don’t believe in only one particular group of Black and Brown artists. That’s a part of cultural caretaking,” Weddemire says.

This show features artists from Cameroonian, Jamaican and Haitian descent. It features explorations of communal practices around hair, family and grieving practices. These things are represented in works made with a variety of materials, artistic styles and forms of presentation, from Candice Tavares’s hand-carved wood portraiture to O’Neil Scott’s explorations drawn from Caribbean mythology. What is ultimately created is what the gallery founders describe as an “intergenerational conversation” around cultural legacy within the context of a broader lineage of artistic innovation across these varied practices. 

Weddemire has grown up understanding the significance of the multifaceted Black and Brown experience, and she’s brought this to the exhibition, creating an intricate curation of work that invites people into what it means to be a part of a shared identity, memory and legacy.

“Everyone has their own identity, and it’s important that we show that cultural melting pot of who we are,” she says.

As that melting pot comes together in the show, what you see are these nuanced, layered stories whispering to each other, creating a conversation based on commonalities found in the differences. 

Weddemire explains, “I thought about how to merge these blue chip artists with these emerging artists while keeping a shared story. When you think about those aspects of those works, that’s why this collaboration is so special.”

Julie Mehretu, Corner of Lake and Minnehaha (blue), 2022, 16-Run screenprint on Coventry Rag, 54 3/4 x 43 1/2 inches, Edition of 45, courtesy Hamilton-Selway Fine Art

Within that shared story is a feeling of community and a common pulse between the artworks that bring to life the collective consciousness across Black and Brown artists working at this pivotal time where there is such a dearth of their voices across the art world and the sociopolitical landscape in general. Weddemire is actively filling that gap in this moment, despite the obstacles.  

While there may be challenges to focusing her work as a gallerist on Black and Brown artists, Weddemire’s intention behind shows like HERE NOW and THEN is to break down those walls and do the work that’s needed to make sure these memories don’t get lost. And other gallerists and collectors like Valdez, as well, are doing the same.

“It’s about us as the gallery championing the work artists have done,” says Weddemire. “What we have to offer as Black and Brown people is truly dynamic. I don’t focus on the challenges. I focus on how we contextualize those stories. Through us doing more of this work, we can make sure that the storytellers have the experience and background to make sure our stories come off effectively.”

For this show, contextualizing looks like examining childhood memories, the muddied significance of gang culture, the bonds that grief can bring between family members and Black beauty and love—all of these varied ways of representation and storytelling that bring the breadth of a diasporic community into one room. 

And that attention to community is inherent to the partners who put the show together. “I feel it’s vital to get more messaging out around different ethnicities and communities and share their stories,” Valdez says. 

Even in the audience’s experience with potentially purchasing work, Valdez and Weddemire have been decisive about making sure the pieces are accessible to art collectors from all financial backgrounds.

O'Neil Scott, Clear Skies, 2025, Oil on Canvas 40" x 30", courtesy Tanya Weddemire Gallery

“I believe in affordability,” Valdez says. “HERE NOW and THEN shows the diversity of what people can purchase and helps them not be afraid to walk into a gallery. You want people to go in and be able to afford something. That’s why our collaboration works.”

A percentage of the proceeds from sales from the exhibition will also go to a nonprofit, American Friends of Jamaica, an organization dedicated to helping charitable organizations and humanitarian efforts in Jamaica.

HERE NOW and THEN embodies diasporic caretaking and accessibility to put these artists, their work, and the shared cultural connections within it to the forefront. Weddemire explains that the goal is to lift and to offer, whether that be referring to the artists, the artwork or the history and culture behind it all.

“Black History Month is 365, 24/7,” she says. “History does repeat itself, but it’s how we change what matters. And through these bodies of work, you’ll see how we’re continuing the legacy of culture and community.”

You can RSVP for HERE NOW and THEN at this link.