“The imprint of culture is the foundation for creating our future identities.”

In today's globalization of migration, every person who crosses geographical and cultural boundaries is a participant in the exchange and translation of cultures from one country to another. They carry not only traces of their personal memories and backgrounds, but also the imprint of the chemical reactions that occur when cultures overlap. The identity of “transversal” brings challenges and creates new possibilities. Through the lens of migration, artists bring a new narrative and inject vitality into a landscape that will be forever changed.

Transversal Imprint: Cultures, Places, Selves brings together the works of five artists from East Asia and the Middle East. Through photography, painting, and installation, it explores cross-cultural narratives of imprint—traces left in daily life, memory, and the body. The works respond to the fluidity of identity and the experience of culture shock in the United States, while also opening new avenues of expression. Each piece reflects the complex relationships between non-Westerners and their new home, using diverse mediums to convey these perspectives. In the forging of a new cultural landscape, a distinct and singular imprint emerges.

This exhibition is a response to the questioning of immigrant identity, a multi-layered art world generated by a new culture. It is not framed by a fixed social narrative or bound by a single cultural context; in this space, identities are reorganized and cultural stories overlap. These artists constitute an island of mobility, engaging in an ongoing reconstruction and dialogue with Western culture that gives rise to boundless new forms. This exhibition hopes to bring more attention to the life-impacting works of Cross-cultural artists from East Asia and the Middle East, and to constitute a culturally-integrated, diverse, and inclusive art community in Washington, DC.

In this context, “transversal” does not merely mean discrete or alienated, but rather a state of integration. Transversal Imprint: Cultures, Places, Selves invites viewers to step into these intertwined narratives and experience how cultures collide to create different sparks.