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Thursday 12pm - 5pm Friday 12pm - 5pm Saturday 12pm - 5pm Sunday 11am - 4pm

ShowUp

ShowUp (Beacon Gallery) is a nonprofit contemporary art exhibition and education space in Boston.

Beacon Gallery strives to enhance access to emerging and established artists for those in the greater Boston area. We will feature local artists as well as those from around the world. Artwork is available for sale in our Boston gallery as well as online at www.beacongallery.com

05/24/2026

We’re all tangled up in this week’s Studio Sunday with .and.perish 🧶✨

“Obsession functions as the driving force behind my practice, which spans across textile, sculpture, and collage, exploring the fluidity between each medium. My work is done by hand, whether that be hand-sewing, crocheting, or drawing. Doing each aspect myself becomes crucial in the control I have over the object and the process. It also functions as a testament to my existence, a reminder of presence even when working through dissociative states.
The focus on materiality within my object-making is accompanied by a feminist-based research practice which situates itself within the realm of theory, philosophy, and psychoanalytic text. Psychiatrist Domina Petric defines the term ‘psychological knot’ as a tangled configuration of thoughts, emotions, or beliefs stemming from trauma. This knot is where I begin my research and, though a mutative process, I work to deconstruct and then re-stitch everything back together. Using the works of writers such as Susan Sontag, D.W. Winnicott, Julia Kristeva, and Siri Hustvedt, I work to analyze fragments of my childhood and subjecthood. Overarching themes can be grouped into various pairs of contradictions such as care/malice, starvation/consumption, and melancholia/mania.
I see all of my work as a form of skin—whether taut over frames, sutured onto paper, or stuffed into three-dimensional form. They are subject to constant care and harm, mutilating and mending, echoing life’s paradoxes.” - Ophelia Arc

05/21/2026

Did you know we already have enough clothes to dress the next 6–7 generations? 🌍
Yet we keep buying more.

This weekend, we’re flipping the script with two events designed to help you love what you already own:

Mending Society – May 30th🪡
Learn patching, sewing & repair techniques to give your clothes a second life instead of replacing them.

Clothing Swap – May 31st 👚
Bring one item, leave with one item. Like thrifting,but make it community.

Both events are free and visit our website to see restrictions on items to bring for the clothing swap.

Hope to see you there!

05/20/2026

From victim to advocate

At 18, Mahendra Pandey traveled to Saudi Arabia to reunite with his father, only to have his passport confiscated and be forced into 18-hour workdays with little food or pay. Same conditions for his father.

A decade after escaping, Pandey now fights for the millions still trapped in that cycle, leading forced labor advocacy at Humanity United and founding Shramik Sanjal, a network supporting Nepalese migrant workers.

What you can do to help is Sign Amnesty International’s human rights petition pressuring FIFA over the 2034 Saudi World Cup.

Thank you .portraits for these stories and portraits.

05/17/2026

This week, we’re so happy to highlight work! Not only are we celebrating his vibrant use of color and richly detailed backgrounds, but also his recent opening, OVR WRKD, at , on view through the 24th.

“In his first professional solo exhibition entitled OVRIWRKD, Sam Belisle continues the enduring tradition of documenting the everyday experience of working-class citizens through moments of work and leisure. OVRIWRKD is a collection of 10 large-scale oil paintings depicting banal micro-narratives that emphasis moments of respite from the chaos of living in and working in contemporary society. Our identities are being monetized and our attention colonized. Technological acceleration has reshaped expectations of labor, identity, care, and community. OVR WRKD aims to document the evolving nature of personal experience in a world that is increasingly disordered.”

05/15/2026

Gulbahar Haitiwaji, Xingjiang, China 🇨🇳

Gulbahar Haitiwaji is a retired petroleum engineer and survivor a Uyghur re-education camp in Xinjiang.

The Uyghur people are a Turkic Muslim ethnic group native to Xinjiang, a region in western China. For years, many Uyghurs have faced mass surveillance, and forced “re-education” by the Chinese government under the claim of combating extremism. After returning to Xinjiang to complete retirement paperwork, Gulbahar was detained in a re-education camp where she endured forced indoctrination, sterilization, constant surveillance, and inhumane living conditions designed to erase her identity.

Gulbahar’s story sheds light on the ongoing human rights abuses faced by Uyghurs and the global systems that continue to profit from their suffering. As consumers, we have a responsibility to pay attention to where our clothing and electronics come from. Download the Good On You app to research brands and make more informed, ethical purchasing decisions.

Visit .portraits website to learn more about her specific story

05/13/2026

Have some unused pieces of clothing taking up space in your closet? Bring them to the Clothing Swap and trade!

The fashion industry accounts for an estimated 10% (!) of global carbon emissions, and employs millions of people, many of whom are working under forced labor conditions.

What lifestyle changes can you make to avoid contributing to this rapacious system? Through the swap, you can buy fewer items and still enjoy something that’s “new to you”. Clean out your closet, or simply make a spot in a dresser drawer, and join us to give away, trade or take gently used adult and kid’s clothing and accessories.

This is a free event—who knows, you might go home with a new favorite garment!

Register through the link in our bio 👚

05/12/2026

Hidden Power. Survivors of Modern Slavery presents Christina Chan’s hyperrealistic drawings of survivors of modern slavery, including forced labor and s*x trafficking. Today an estimated 50 million people are held against their will, generating more than $236 billion each year from industries and products including smartphones, fashion, chocolate, sugar, bananas, hospitality, and commercial s*x.
In this updated collection, Chan begins to focus on the beauty and power of hands caught in modern slavery, as a way of expanding the conversation around labor, manufacturing and consumption.
These pieces complement her ongoing portrait series of survivors, where Chan personally connects with individual to learn their story through conversation and research, and then create their portrait over the course of between 20 to 90 hours.
The beauty and intricacy of the portraits reveal both the quiet dignity and resilience of those who have endured. These people carry unseen histories of exploitation and survival.
Visitors are
encouraged to question the hidden
cost behind familiar products and to explore what awareness means: What tradeoffs we are willing to make between our own physical comfort and desires and the wellbeing of others? Do we continue life as usual, or find ways to change? .portraits

05/10/2026

Not only is she a mother, she’s also the mother of Show Up 🌷

The heart behind a space that continues to bring people and ideas together. Happy Mother’s Day to all moms creating care in every form 💐

📸:

05/07/2026

Unamed, DR Congo

As technically and beautifully executed as these portraits are, a critical aspect of this exhibition is its effort to shed light on modern slavery and encourage viewers to reconsider the daily choices that may indirectly or directly contribute to this ongoing issue. These works are more than portraits, they are stories carrying the weight of lived experiences.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo supplies much of the world’s cobalt, a material essential to the batteries powering our everyday technologies, yet many miners work in dangerous conditions for extremely low wages. Despite the country’s immense mineral wealth, generations of exploitation, forced labor, and ongoing conflict continue to leave millions vulnerable to modern slavery. This work calls for greater consumer awareness and corporate accountability surrounding the human cost behind the products we use daily.

As part of a solution and form of resistance, we encourage downloading the to research ethical practices before purchasing electronics or clothing. Simply enter the name of a company, and the app provides information on its labor practices, and overall ethical standards.

Thank you .portraits for your amazing and emotional work.

05/05/2026

Thank you to everyone who came out to the opening reception of Hidden Power 🤍 Charcoal Portraits by .portraits

The exhibition will be on view from now till June 21st. Please stop by to learn more about these powerful stories behind the portraits.

Address

524B Harrison Avenue
Boston, MA
02118

Opening Hours

Thursday	12pm - 5pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 4pm

Telephone

+16177185600

Website

http://www.showupinc.org/

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