Hold Fast
October 4, 2025 - October 25, 2025
Opening Reception:
Thursday, October 9th from 6:00 - 9:00 pm
Gallery Hours:
Saturdays 12:00 - 5:00 pm and by appointment
Anchoring ourselves in the delicate balance of stillness and motion, we hold onto what we can save. This mosaic of resilience and connection is pieced together from fragments of memory, heritage, and belonging. Across borders, we engage with forces that shape and fracture our lives—grief, loss, hope, and memory—tracing echoes of connections and divisions.
We pause at a moment of in-betweenness, coming together for a harmonious connection of the past three years as four artists. Seeking grace, we step into the future, holding fast to the weight of hope as we carry it forward.
Hold Fast is an exhibition that brings together the work by Mahsa Attaran, Monica Hamilton, Hanieh Kashani, and Anna Schwartz as we conclude our Master of Fine Arts studies at the University of Connecticut. This showcase brings together four diverse voices that have evolved in tandem over the past three years, shaped by shared spaces, dialogue, and collaborative growth. We have developed distinctive practices within the broader framework of our cohort and place in this world by creating work that resonates on individual and collective frequencies. Through photography, installation, painting, and sculpture, this group exhibition reflects years of engagement with questions of perception, distance, revolution, and archival memory. Hold Fast presents both our unique perspectives and the shared experiences that have shaped our journeys.