The Collaborative | WATER IN THE GAS

June 7th - August 23rd, 2025

Installation image by Vivian Marie Doering.

The Kreeger Museum and Hamiltonian Artists are pleased to present WATER IN THE GAS, an exhibition featuring the work of 2022-2024 Hamiltonian alumni Misha Ilin, Madyha J. Leghari, Edgar Reyes, and Isabella Whitfield.

The title for the exhibition comes from Jean Dubuffet’s 1961 painting, Water In The Gas (L'eau dans le gaz), which lives in The Kreeger Museum’s permanent collection. It is said that the French phrase can be traced back to the early 20th century, when households used coal gas for electricity. High concentrations of water vapor would create obstructions in the pipes, resulting in pressure and creating small explosions. The expression is used when tension is rising in the atmosphere, or an argument is brewing.

In the same vein, this exhibition calls us to consider the ways in which socio-political pressures give rise to generational implications. WATER IN THE GAS places artists living and working in what is widely considered to be an unprecedented moment in US history, in conversation with artists whose lives and careers were impacted by some of the most defining power struggles of the 20th century.

Situated in the tumultuous geopolitical climate of 1934-1965, selected works from The Kreeger Museum’s permanent collection reflect themes of citizenship, censorship, industry, labor, and sovereignty. The paintings and sculpture range from Josef Albers’ geometric abstraction, to Max Beckmann’s representational work of children playing. Other featured artists include Fernand Léger, Joan Mitchell, David Park, and David Smith.

Drawing upon current events and rising temperatures in the United States’ socio-political climate, Hamiltonian alumni point to what might be left behind for generations Z and Alpha—from fenced borders, radioactive rays, and class disparity to four-leaf clovers, indigenous relics, and obstetric illustrations etched in salt stone. Their contributed works move across sculpture, photo, textile, and installation.

This exhibition is curated by Anisa Olufemi, Director of Programs and Curator at Hamiltonian Artists, and presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.

About the Artists

Edgar Reyes (b. 1990; Guadalajara, Mexico) is a multimedia artist and professor based in Baltimore, Maryland. His work invites viewers to think about the people, places, and connections they carry with them. Reyes’ practice draws on the specifics of his own life and reflections of shared experiences of resettlement and migration. Through his art-making, he explores his family’s Mexican and Indigenous roots. Reyes earned his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has taught at nonprofit organizations, schools, universities, and museums. His work has been prominently featured in large-scale public installations and in galleries and public spaces across the United States. In recent years, Reyes’ work has been exhibited and collected by various museums and institutions, including The Walters Art Museum and Johns Hopkins University.

Misha Ilin (b. 1985; Protvino, Russia) is an interdisciplinary artist working across installation, performance, sculpture, and writing. He interrogates communicative divides within political, ecological, and economic systems, examining how constructed realities arise under conditions of authority, bureaucracy, and control. Frequently incorporating instructional prompts as participatory tools, Ilin positions his projects as a form of social inquiry, bridging personal narratives with larger systemic structures. Misha studied art at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow. In 2016, he moved to the United States to pursue his Master’s in Fine Arts. Ilin is a recipient of the Research and Publication Grant from Washington Project for the Arts (2023). His recent exhibitions include Pale Grass Blue at Hamiltonian Artists (Washington, DC); Wish the Past Never to Repeat Itself at The Kitchen (Berlin, Germany); and Inquisitive Instructions at the Modern Art Museum (Shanghai, China). Misha Ilin currently lives and works in New York.

Isabella Whitfield (b. 1998; Centreville, Virginia) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Virginia, working in papermaking, sculpture, and site-responsive installation. Her work explores how the function and history of objects can be abstracted through material, repetition, and context. After earning BAs in Sculpture and Politics from the University of Virginia, she completed a postgraduate year as an Aunspaugh Art Fellow. Whitfield exhibits primarily in the DMV area and has been a resident artist with Penland, Anderson Ranch, Ox-Bow, Pyramid Atlantic, VisArts Richmond, and VisArts (Rockville). She was a 2022–2024 Hamiltonian Fellow and is currently a Papermaking Associate at Pyramid Atlantic.

Madyha J. Leghari (b. 1991; Multan, Pakistan) is a visual artist, writer, and educator working between Lahore and Washington, DC. She holds a BFA from the National College of Arts, Lahore, and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design through a Fulbright scholarship. Her multidisciplinary practice interrogates the possibilities and limits of language and the body, occupying the interstices of poetry, post-humanism and semantic play. Leghari has been recognized with numerous prestigious fellowships and residencies, including the Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, Wherewithal Research Grant, Islam & Print Fellowship, Delta Research Placement at Flat Time House, and Siena Art Institute Residency. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as the Pera Museum, Karachi Biennale, University of Colorado Boulder, and Bennington College, spanning the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Artforum, and The News Pakistan. She has taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore; the Massachusetts College of Art and Design; and Beaconhouse National University.