Shoshanna Weinberger, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, presented her exhibition The Space Between Light on Sept. 17 at the NYC location of the arts organization Project for Empty Space (PES) Futures gallery, 128 Baxter St., New York, NY 10013.

Her mother was also born and raised in Kingston, and her American father grew up in Clifton, NJ.  Soon after, her younger sister was born in Kingston as well.

“Growing up with two creative parents, my sister and I invented worlds, spending much of our summers outdoors or creating. My mother wanted us to know our family and the island firsthand, to connect with its artists and friends, and to stay grounded in a history and culture not taught in U.S. classrooms. Those experiences gave me an early understanding of Caribbean existence and identity,” Weinberger shared of what it was like living in Jamaica early on in her childhood.

As the political uncertainty grew in Jamaica in the 1970s, her parents decided to move to the US, settling in Montclair, New Jersey, a town whose diversity her parents believed created the right atmosphere for us to thrive.

She said that being surrounded by her father’s side of the family carried its own significance since he was a first-generation American on her grandmother’s side and second-generation on her grandfather’s side. She added that in her teenage years, she was more aware of W.E.B. Du Bois’s idea of ‘Double Consciousness,’ feeling ‘not enough’ of anything through society’s lens.

“Not Jamaican enough, not American enough, not Jewish enough. That constant negotiation of identity placed me on the periphery of the ability to code-switch, allowing me a super-power to understand navigating between cultures, belonging, and creativity,” she added.

Weinberger’s parents were her earliest and most lasting influences. They were artists who lived and worked creatively, so she grew up in a household where imagination, experimentation, and self-expression were everyday values.

“Beyond my family, artists from the Chicago Imagists group decades before me (c. 1960s), like Roger Brown, Ray Yoshida, and Christina Ramberg, whose work I studied during undergrad, shaped how I think about form and composition,” she added. 

Another of the most significant influences for her as an artist is history, both collective and personal, which she sees as just as central. “I often think of myself as a visual anthropologist, using abstraction to connect back to memory, heritage, lived experiences, and recorded findings. My practice is about stitching those narratives together, allowing personal and cultural histories to coexist within a visual language,” Weinberger explained.

Some of the life experiences that have shaped her artwork include the history of Jamaica and her mother’s family history. Though she still uncovers this, it motivates her work. It grounds my exploration of memory, identity, and visibility in this installation.

“Returning and traveling through the country with my parents and younger sister also shaped my creative vision. Visits to family friends who were celebrated artists taught me the role of art in culture. These journeys impressed upon me a visceral sense of Jamaica’s layered landscapes, at once precarious and abundant, now cinematic in memory, and have qualities that shape the spatial rhythm of my installations,” she stated.

She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts (BFA) in 1995. Afterward, she spent six years working for a corporate photography collection, where she was exposed to the history of fine art photography.

“That experience, and being exposed to the work of the Chicago Imagists movement (1960s) during my undergraduate years, shaped my visual understanding of mark-making and sense of composition,” she continued.

Weinberger felt all these influences and experiences converged for this exhibition. This is the first time she is incorporating film into her work. Filmed in Kingston, after editing, it was like a cinematic collage that fills the gallery space, including things such as: the life of a storm, being inside the flora and fauna, and moving through sand.

According to Weinberger, it grew out of her ongoing conversations with PES co-directors Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Jampol, since they knew her history as a former PES Artist-in-Residence and her evolution as an artist and as a current studio member.

In addition, since she worked on several gallery projects with both of them, together and individually, they invited her last year to reimagine the PES Futures gallery in NYC. It felt like the right challenge to her at the right time, and having their support and the opportunity to transform an entirely new environment pushed her to expand her work in this direction.

In discussing her reason for using mirrors as the main object, she said, “The Space Between Light features life-sized reflective fractal structures that act as portals, connecting what is imagined with what is yet to come. Mirrors have been central to my practice because they let me work with both presence and absence, fragmenting perception while inviting viewers to see themselves as part of the work.”

She elaborated and said, “In this exhibition, mirrors don’t just reflect, they transform the environment, making the audience the figures within the piece. The installation unfolds across the gallery with a transitional wall that guides viewers deeper into shifting spaces of light, sound, and moving images. Nothing is static; the work changes depending on who is present and how they move through it.”

 Next year will mark two decades of Weinberger living and working in Newark, NJ. “The city has become not only my home, but also the foundation for my ongoing artistic life and community,” she continued.

Weinberger wants her legacy to be one filled with ongoing exploration, using a range of materials to tell visual narratives that connect through art and community, and where multiplicity is not only accepted but celebrated.

“My own life has been shaped by navigating multiple identities and cultural contexts, and I want younger generations to recognize that as a source of strength rather than a burden,” she stated, adding, “It’s important to me to show young people, not only in Newark, NJ, where I’ve made my home since 2006, but also in Kingston, Jamaica, and across Caribbean and diasporic communities that their stories, voices, and visions matter in the broader art world.” 

Whether through teaching, exhibiting, or simply maintaining a daily studio practice, she hopes to model persistence and creativity.  “My hope is that they feel inspired not just to make work, but to claim space for themselves in the world with confidence and courage.”

The exhibition will be displayed at the NYC location for PES Futures and on view through Jan. 18, 2026. The gallery is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m.

Interested people can stay updated on Weinberger’s work on her website, www.shoshanna.info. They can also support her by following her on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/shoshannaweinberger/?hl=en.