The Hardest Love We Carry takes its title from Jane Hirshfield’s poem “Hope and Love,” which considers hope as a sustaining force. Grounded in the featured artists’ own lives and family histories, the exhibition traces how people move through loss, change, and uncertainty. Across the photographic works included, moments of vulnerability come into focus, revealing where resolve is strengthened, creativity intervenes, and resilience begins to take shape.

Keliy Anderson-Staley
Keliy Anderson-Staley’s Unbound is made from hundreds of hospital wristbands worn during her ongoing experience with breast cancer and autoimmune disorders. Through the cyanotype process, these markers of medical care are transformed into luminous, abstract forms. Gathered in dense clusters, the work reflects care as sustained effort. It is repetitive and demanding yet carried by hope and the possibility of healing.

Jessica Carolina González
Jessica Carolina González presents work from her series Es Una Lucha (It’s a Struggle) that combines family photographs with scans of her mother’s U.S. immigration records. Created while Jessica was sponsoring her mother’s residency, the works layer intimate moments of family life with bureaucratic documents. The series serves as both an act of preservation and a love letter to her family, asserting dignity, visibility, and hope in the face of systemic pressure.

Hillerbrand + Masgsamen
Hillerbrand + Magsamen’s 147 Devices for Integrated Principles features whimsical contraptions built from everyday household objects. These improvised “devices” playfully attempt to solve life’s impossible problems—forgetting, forgiving, or simply keeping life in motion. Inspired by weathering Houston storms, the works meet exhaustion and uncertainty with humor, creativity, and a determination to keep trying.

Brian Edwards Jr.
In On My Way Home, Brian Edwards Jr. documents Black cowboy culture in Dayton, Texas and the surrounding areas. Moving between quiet moments and action-filled scenes, his photographs emphasize the grit of this way of life, from rodeos to ranch work. The series presents the Black cowboy not as a mythic figure of the past, but as a living, contemporary presence.

Photography by Rony Canales

Videography by Tripp Films