Few cities are undergoing a period of gentrification as lengthy as D.C.’s, and perhaps none are gentrifying as quickly. The individual stories of displacement, as well as the larger narrative arc that shows how class and racial lines overlap to push out poorer minority communities, have particular poignancy in D.C., one of the first cities in the U.S. with a black majority. Against this backdrop, the local African-American artist collective Delusions of Grandeur created How We Lost DC, an exhibition the group calls “a visual discourse on gentrification.” The work of Wesley Clark, Larry Cook, Shaunté Gates, Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Amber Robles-Gorden, and Stan Squirewell encompasses photography, textile, paintings, mixed media, and sculpture in a show that moves between portraiture and would-be artifacts to tapestry and art made from maps of the District itself. The group uses these works to provide commentary on a world where, in their words, “the rise to wealth is ever present, yet elusive.” The exhibit takes place at Honfleur Gallery, itself a project of ARCH Development Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to sparking economic and residential revitalization in Anacostia, one of D.C.’s poorest neighborhood and one that could gentrify soon.
The exhibition is on view Tuesdays through Fridays noon to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., to Oct. 31, at Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Good Hope Road SE. Free. (202) 365-8392. honfleurgallery.com