Petty Not Pretty

What happens when art refuses to be pretty? When artists reject pressures to soothe, please, or respond nicely to egregious behavior? Petty Not Pretty challenges the notion that worth must be weighed by beauty alone, confronting the idea that art should be palatable in order to be consumed. If we, as human beings, are not palatable— if we speak too loudly, react too strongly, or refuse to shrink ourselves, are we automatically deemed petty? So be it.

Pettiness can occur through silence. It can also manifest loudly. We host artworks that unveil themselves with time, like a heavy sigh after a conversation runs in circles. In contrast, we invite pieces with noisy, vivid color, like a rainbow that slices through a grey, sideways downpour.

The exhibition is a rallying cry for the dismissed and the exhausted. Twenty-three artists channel their grievances, both personal and collective, that emerge from rigid standards of beauty, the suffocating weight of expectation, and the societal dismissal of strong reactions as “petty.” Their work embraces overreaction, absurdity, and emotional rawness, inviting viewers to sit in discomfort and confront truths that often go ignored.

Like a kaleidoscope of contradictions, Petty Not Pretty teeters between humor and unease, defiance and vulnerability. It’s an electric roller coaster that pulls you in with its aesthetic allure, only to twist and turn through unexpected terrain, provoking laughter in one moment and leaving you unsettled the next. It’s messy, vital, and unapologetically alive. So let the work provoke. Let it unsettle. Let it be petty, not pretty—because sometimes the loudest truths lie in what refuses to be palatable.