Join us for the opening of House of Blues, a new installation by Yannick Lowery, 2026 Artist in Residence.
The evening includes a live performance by Lowery, followed by an artist talk and Q&A.
We'll also screen an excerpt from With Love, West, a docuseries by jasmine lynea on the artists and creatives shaping West Philadelphia.
Free and open to all. Refreshments provided.
In House of Blues, Lowery explores the unique experience of Black labor in the United States. Although America has a long history of recruiting foreign labor, Africans were the only population forcibly abducted, trafficked, and enslaved for their knowledge and ability to serve as an American workforce. Even after slavery officially ended in Pennsylvania in 1847, the majority of Black labor was in service to previous slave owners, their descendants, and beneficiaries. Wealthy households continued to use Black labor to support their families as cooks, gardeners, nannies, butlers and for general labor of all kinds. Despite working in these intimate spaces, these individuals lived very divided lives, often living in secret quarters and navigating these homes through back stairways and hidden doors. The irony of this separation and duality of working within a home environment creates a unique dynamic with an emotional toll rarely considered. Having worked in the service industry for many years, and after several discussions with current Glen Foerd employees during his residency, Lowery recounts the relentless cost of caregiving and the imbalance of receiving such care through his series of collage-based cyanotypes. House of Blues speculates on the inner thoughts that may have sustained the staff day to day, while imagining a posthumous counter-narrative of leisure for them then and for us now.
About Yannick Lowery
Yannick Lowery is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in Philadelphia, PA. Originally from New York City, he embraces both cities as cultural and creative influences, drawing on their rich and diverse visual art histories to fuel his practice. Yannick studied sculpture and design at The Atlanta College of Art (now SCAD) and Columbia College in Chicago. Yannick’s work often weaves together illustrated proverbs, premonitions, and historical references to guide viewers through cultural introspection and imaginative narratives. Using archival imagery and his own photography, he engages in world-building through collage, animation, cyanotypes, and sculptural pieces, creating thought-provoking and exploratory works.