jemi gale & Sol Fernandez, Blu Fernandez Nitor-Zammataro, Zeia Fernandez Nitor-Zammataro, #6 untitled

This painting is from the exhibition You Can Use My Phone. This exhibition, both new and familiar, is an offering of depictions that rise from the shared voice of Aunty Jemi Gale, Sol Fernandez and her children and collaborators Blu and Zeia Fernandez Nitor-Zammataro. Here, paintings are not just seen; they are felt — reaching out to little hands. Intended to be felt by the crawling, toddling, wide-eyed, and those who care for and live amongst the young.

Our moments together are sharing in food, and drink, and sun, and paint, and puzzles, and snacks, and chores, and offerings. Hiding pointy things, chasing after quick yet little legs, pausing in between conversations to answer tedious and deep questions. Negotiating with time, attention, reason.

For Sol, collaborating with her children is an extension of the daily dance that is parenting, an innate part of life as a family of artists. Aunty Jemi, holds a bridge between the familiar and the outside world for Blu and Zeia. A burst of joy that carries no weight of expectation, a presence and collaboration that could go on for hours in the hopes that Aunty will stay for dinner, maybe stay over, come with us to run errands — keep experiencing our life with us.

You Can Use My Phone speaks to the intimate exchange of resources, the sharing of spaces and tools, and the blurred boundaries between personal and collective experience, especially within families and extended families.