This event is part of a series – see below for details.September 11, 2026 10:00 a.m.
Lost & Found: An Exhibition by the 2026 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort
Event Details
Lost & Found
An Exhibition by the 2026 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort
On view in the gallery at the WaterFire Arts Center through October 11, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10, 6:00–9:00 p.m
Lost & Found is the culminating group exhibition of the 2026 WaterFire Accelerate cohort, featuring six artists under 30: Aja Delgado, Pamela Fernández, Leia Fifer, Yasmine Hassan, Amelia Rozear, and Rachel Turner.
Through a diverse array of mediums spanning film photography, printmaking, wood marquetry, fibers, mixed media illustration, and more, this exhibition invites viewers to lose (and find) themselves in the minds of the artists.
Each artist grapples with the theme of “Lost & Found” in their own way, sharing meditations on self-discovery and abandonment, personal and imagined mythologies, forgotten and violently obscured histories, displacement in relation to identity, the conscious and subconscious, and the interplay between nature and the divine. Despite sharing many of these throughlines, the works each oscillate between boldness and tenderness, dwelling in nostalgia and embracing the future, and finding healing both within and in the most unexpected everyday places.
PROGRAMMING
- Valley Vibes Roof Deck Preview: Lost in the Valley
Thursday, August 27, 6:00–9:00 p.m.
Get an early look at Lost & Found at this special summer preview on the WFAC roof deck, featuring a DJ set by YLSANITA and drinks by Hi Bar Lo Bar. - Opening Reception
Thursday, September 10, 6:00–9:00 p.m.
Celebrate the opening of Lost & Found and meet the six artists of the 2026 WaterFire Accelerate cohort. - Gallery Night Providence
Thursday, September 17
A Gallery Night trolley departs the WFAC at 6:30 p.m. for a tour of local galleries, ending at WFAC for a guided visit of Lost & Found. - “After Hours” Mixer
Thursday, October 8, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Stop in for the last late-night viewing hours. Meet and greet with the artists, enjoy the art, music, refreshments, and a relaxed vibe. - Artist Panel
Sunday, October 11, 3:00 p.m.
Join the artists for a conversation about their work, creative practices, community, and experience.
Moderator: Christopher Roberts
The WaterFire Arts Center store + gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday until 9:00 p.m. Admission is free and open to all; donations are encouraged.
ABOUT WATERFIRE ACCELERATE
WaterFire Accelerate is a year-long professional development program designed for artists 30 and under. The program creates space for creative and professional growth through peer learning, community building, and opportunities to exhibit their work; helping participants build sustainable creative careers.
Now in its fifth year, the 2026 cohort continues to reflect Providence’s artistic vitality, supporting artists who represent a diverse range of backgrounds, mediums, and perspectives.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Aja Delgado
Aja Delgado’s practice is a vibrant exploration of nostalgia, emotional vulnerability, and play. Working across printmaking, painting, collage, textiles, clothing customization, and mixed media, she creates layered pieces that honor both vulnerability and joyful experimentation. Color and shapes are central to their work; acting as emotional channels, drawing connections between the playfulness and enjoyment of creating, along with the inner depth of feeling so deeply. Much of her creativity is fueled by emotion. She turns to art as a way to process feeling, to revisit formative moments, and to translate the unexplainable into something physical. Whether through the layering of prints, the gesture of a brushstroke, or the customization of a garment, she approaches making as both a healing act and a playful one. Delgado aims to create work that invites viewers into a space where vulnerability is not only visible but also celebrated.
ajaprint.com
Instagram: @ajaprint
Pamela Fernández
Pamela Fernández is a Providence-based interdisciplinary artist. Immigrating at a young age from the Dominican Republic her cultural identity and idea of home have been created from fragments pieced together from her own lived experiences, familial stories and media. She tries to make sense of these puzzle pieces to create one that is authentic to her. Her work embodies trying to put these fragments together to answer and explore her questions about her ancestry, culture and ideas of home and how these have impacted her personal identity and have formed her relationship to the Caribbean-Diaspora at large.
pamelafernandez.myportfolio.com
Instagram: @pamelaamfernandez
Leia Fifer
Liam Fifer, also known as Leia, is a multidisciplinary artist living in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, working in fibers, collage, and printmaking. Their attraction to synthesizing process-based mediums produces expressive artmaking, addressing disability, illness, and gender fluidity; personal symbolism emerges from their connection to rituals of the earth as a part of healing and escaping the limits of the human body with resilience and humor. Fifer is interested in creating work specific to queer and disabled audiences for celebration and connection. They hold an Associates in Fine Arts from the Community College of Rhode Island, and have exhibited work in galleries, community arts centers, and DIY spaces. Their first solo exhibition, No Bodies In Heaven, debuted in March 2026 in partnership with the Flanagan Art Gallery at the Community College of Rhode Island.
leiafifer.com
Instagram: @chernobylstray
Yasmine Hassan
Yasmine Hassan is an interdisciplinary artist and designer who was born in Brooklyn, NY, raised in Columbus, OH, and has been based in Providence since 2013. She comes from a working-class, “tri-cultural” household of African immigrants–her father is Sudanese and her mother is Sierra Leonean-born Lebanese. Trained in both mechanical engineering and industrial design, and with significant professional experience as a youth design/build educator, her work as an artist ranges from large-scale carpentry and fine woodworking to physical computing and digital illustration. Through these diverse media, she is interested in uncovering forgotten histories, empowering marginalized people to reshape their environments, and collaboratively creating “for us, by us” spaces where youth are able to thrive while still being themselves. She also draws thematic and visual inspiration from a fascination with music of all sorts, Black and brown pop culture history, animation and narrative fiction, D.I.Y. and counter-culture, and assemblage and readymade art.
Yasmine has logged nearly as many hours working in the woodshop as she has spent thinking about her family in Sudan these past few years. She believes that Palestine will be free in our lifetime.
ysmnhssn.com
Instagram: @ysmnhssn
Amelia Rozear
Amelia Rozear (b. 2000, Branford, CT) is a visual artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2022. Interested in the divine nature of artmaking, she crafts narrative paintings that play with the great unknowns of the universe, inventing personal mythologies based on subconscious thought, memory, and compulsion. With a background in illustration, she is fascinated by the many ways visual language has shaped history, and often finds inspiration in medieval manuscripts, medical textbooks, and devotional iconography. As the painter of such scenes, she places herself in the role of an absurd prophet– one that delights in liminality, fate, and the endless rumination of what’s to come.
arozear.com
Instagram: @arozear
Rachel Turner
Rachel Turner is a photographer based in Providence, Rhode Island whose work explores the intimacy of everyday life. Rachel tries to slow things down, to notice what’s right in front of everyone and to bring a sense of presence to the world around her. Rachel works primarily in photography shooting with 35mm and 120mm films. Painting has recently become another way she translates what she sees, using color and line to express emotion and movement.
rachelgturner.com
Instagram: @rachelturner2
Organizer
