I HAVE CONSIDERED THE LILIES, OR, EVERYTHING IS FINE AND ALRIGHT FOREVER

2026 JURIED MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION CURATED BY JACKIE IM & AARON HARBOUR

JUNE 13 - AUGUST 15, 2026

Participating artists: Christine Aiko Beck  · Cherisse Alcantara  · Salimatu Amabebe · Nadja Battersby · Emilie Boras  · Heather Brown · Jackie Sarah Brown · Angela Chu  · Jacob Clark · Paquerette  · Anjelica Colliard · James Corbett  · Sofia Criswell  · Alex Ehmer  · Laurence Elias · Carol Elkovich · Eden Evans · Anna Feldman · Sneha Gindodiya · Kate Goka · Kris Goodie · Jennifer Boyuan Han · Yang Hu · Elizabeth Kendall · Emily Kenyo · Suzy Kopf · Shay Lari-Hosain · Kate Laster · Nagi Lee  · Carey Lin  · Nico Lown Heitz · Yuki Maruyama · Christine Meuris  · Claudia Morales · Firouzeh Nourzad · Mokhtar Paki  · Sun Park  · Moonji Pickering · Adriana Ramirez · Leah Rosenberg · Sanaz Safanasab · Erik Schmitt  · Julia Schwartz · Gabby Severson · Meghna Sharma · Rene Smith · Siana Smith · Dobee Snowber · Sam Soon  · Salix Staley · Beatrice Thornton  · Ali Vaughan · Jane Whitley · Sharon Yan · Jes Young · Elena Yu · Abby Zhang · Stella Zhang

related programs:

  • Opening Reception: Saturday, June 13, 3 - 5 pm.

  • Potluck and Artists in Conversation: Curators in conversation with Salimatu Amabebe & Sun Parks (Jurors’ Awardees) — stay tune for date and more details!

  • Closing Reception & Announcement of Public Awardee: Saturday, August 15, 3 - 5 pm.

 

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

‘Everything is fine and alright forever’ is from Kerouac, but we've never read Kerouac – we encountered the phrase in Renee Green’s Camino Road. And we don't think ‘everything is fine’, more or less ‘alright forever’ - far from it. But flits of fine spread across the wilds of the bad and forgettable, like fireflies on a summer night. By this logic, the infinite night surrounding them is the possibly overwhelming 'not fine', this miasma, yet their modest glow brings hope. The good things can pierce the void; survival can be woven from node to node, fill space.

These words aren't meant to confuse, but what we care most about is gossamer, obscure. We began with an author, paraphrased by a character, quoted by a narrator, given life by Renee Green thirty years ago, reprinted, and then shared here by us - lens after lens after lens shaping original intention and context into something new; we're excited by connections across time, between once strangers.

Artworks are these nodes bridging time and space. Thinking about artworks a bit, a song came to mind by Connie Converse:

I have Considered the lilies
They never toil, they only bloom
They never feel chilly
Or tired or silly
And they don’t need much room
I have considered the lilies
I have considered how they grow
Tell me, tell me how to be a lily
If you know*

 An open call: over three hundred applicants, and we chose nearly sixty for the show, with another dozen or two that were maybes, only not included because we had to be conscious of the available exhibition space. And though these artists, living maybe twenty miles apart max, all found their way to this project, we personally only know a few of them, and only a few in the mix know each other. The artworks we chose have a certain glimmer about them, something ineffable; we’d struggle if pressed to explain what made this or that piece ‘a lily’. By pulling them together into an exhibition, we're forming some of those loose linkages that might make the world fine; these small moments of connection are what make it so, make it alright, forever.

——

*Connie Converse dropped out of college, traveled the country, eventually settling in New York where she wrote and recorded a handful of wonderful songs, beloved by (in her words) “Dozens of people all over the world.” In 1974 she wrote a series of goodbye letters to friends and family, packed up her Volkswagen, and disappeared. She has not been heard from since.

 

ABOUT THE CURATOR
Jackie Im is a curator based in Oakland, CA. She is the co-founder and Director of Et al., San Francisco, alongside Aaron Harbour. She also currently serves as the Acting Director of Galleries and Public Programs at the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Galleries. She has organized exhibitions at the Wattis Institute of Contemporary Art, Queens Nails, The Lab, Important Projects, MacArthur B Arthur, and SFAC Galleries. Im was the co-curator of the 2024 Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial at Oregon Contemporary in Portland. Her writing has appeared in Fillip Magazine, Variable West, Art Practical, and San Francisco Arts Quarterly, among others. She holds a BA in Art History from Mills College and an MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of the Arts.

Aaron Harbour is a writer, curator, and DJ living in Oakland, CA, who received some education at the San Francisco Art Institute. Alongside Jackie Im, he directs the exhibition and event space Et al. in San Francisco. He has curated and exhibited shows locally and elsewhere, and produces a music podcast called 'Timber!'.

ABOUT ET AL.
Et al. is a gallery directed by Jackie Im and Aaron Harbour. The gallery serves as a site for exhibitions and events, working with its select roster as well as other local and international artists, performers, writers, publishers, and curators. Et al. was founded in 2013 by Im, Harbour, and Facundo Argañaraz, in the basement of Union Cleaners in San Francisco's Chinatown as a continuation of Im and Harbour’s curatorial project. In 2017, Et al. opened its second location, Et al. etc., a storefront gallery in the Mission, and worked closely with Kevin Krueger, who continues to assist now and then. In 2024, the Chinatown location closed after 11 years in operation. https://etaletc.com/

Et al. books is a new and used bookstore that operates out of Et al.’s Mission location. Open in 2021, it continues to expand its scope, with high-quality books in many genres. Et al./Et al. books hosts all manner of readings and events in the space.