new.now. (2026)

Hamiltonian Artists is thrilled to present new.now., our annual group exhibition debuting the work of distinguished 2025–2027 fellows: Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida, Chidinma Dureke, Mallory Kimmel, Behrouz Vatankhah, and Tara Youngborg. Each year, new.now. serves as a snapshot of the newest Hamiltonian Artists fellows’ creative practices, exhibiting the work they plan to expand upon during their two-year fellowship. 

In this presentation of new.now., each artist’s work conveys a sense of adaptability; some take on an active exercise in troubleshooting. Concerns around displacement, machine learning, information access, and class disparity are met with ingenuity and radical imagination. Here, viewers are invited to consider: when there is not enough time in the day or sufficient resources to make do, how can we get creative? How might we use the tools at our disposal to circumvent constraints and carve out new possibilities rooted in equity, healing, and human connection?

Located somewhere between imagination and memory, Dureke’s collaged paintings probe the interiors of her diasporic experience as a Nigerian-American woman raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Kimmel works across bookmaking and found-object sculpture to interrogate professionalism, hyper-productivity, and the hostile conditions of late-stage capitalism. Exploring the metaphysical, Vatankhah’s sculptural, abstract paintings reflect the tension between what is felt and what can be seen. Youngborg’s video and cyanotypes on paper transmute environmental data into scenes where the natural world, digital systems, and historical record become entangled. Drawing from domestic life and craft traditions of his ancestral Chile, Fuenzalida’s photographic arpilleras and weavings highlight everyday residues of the neoliberal, extractive economics Chileans face today.

Artists

Diego Borgsdorf Fuenzalida (b. 2002, Los Angeles, CA) is an experimental ethnographic researcher and textile artist based between Los Angeles and Washington, DC. His work addresses the affective dimensions of post-dictatorship life in Chile and the diaspora.

Chidinma Dureke (b. 1989, Washington, DC) works in painting, sculpture, and production design. She holds a BFA from Frostburg State University, and MFA from The LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Dureke lives and works in Maryland.

Mallory Kimmel (b. 1995, Olney, MD) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and writer who makes socially engaged work addressing and eradicating exclusionary design practices in the built environment to make rest accessible to all.  She teaches design at Lehigh University.

Behrouz Vatankhah (b. 1985, Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian American visual artist based in Washington, DC, whose work transforms personal experiences of anxiety, displacement, and cultural transition into broader reflections on identity, human resilience, and belonging. 

Tara Youngborg (b. 1989, Towson, MD) is a Maryland-based artist, educator, curator, and arts administrator. Her work uses digital technologies to explore place, memory, and technology. She holds a BA in Art and Art History from St Mary’s College of Maryland and an MFA from Towson University.

Available works