Between Here and Elsewhere: A Portrait of the New American Experience
THrough january 2027

On view
Frenzel gallery

To arrive in a new place is to step into a life shaped as much by possibility as by change. For immigrants and refugees, arrival is not a single moment but a continuous negotiation — between past and present, between identity and belonging, between here and elsewhere.

Between Here and Elsewhere centers the work of six contemporary artists whose practices speak to the experiences of New Americans: Victoria Udondian, Alberto Rey, Leila Khoury, Jordan Wong, Natasha Kravchenko, and Lorena Alvarez. Working across painting, photography, sculpture, ceramics, and installation, each artist draws on their own experience and perspective to explore memory, identity, and belonging.

Between Here and Elsewhere is developed in partnership with Maria Ferguson and PennWest. Funded in part by ECGRA. #ECGRAWorks

artists

Alberto rey

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1960, Alberto Rey received his political asylum through Mexico in 1963 and moved to Miami, Florida in 1965. In 1967, his family relocated to Barnesboro, Pennsylvania, where he lived until 1982. Rey received his B.F.A from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and his M.F.A. in Drawing and Painting from the University at Buffalo, New York. In 1989, he moved to Dunkirk, New York to accept a teaching position at the State University of New York at Fredonia, and in 2007 was promoted to SUNY Distinguished Professor for Research and Creative Activity. Rey’s paintings can be found in over twenty museum collections, including the Albright-Knox Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Bronx Museum of Art. His artwork since 1986 has been influenced by his Cuban lineage and his attempt to find a sense of identity in a complex contemporary environment.

Website

photo credit: David Moog

Leila Khoury

Leila Khoury is a multidisciplinary artist who visualizes the connections between placemaking, the built environment, and community histories through a multifaceted practice in sculpture, scenic and architectural design, printed matter, and storytelling. Khoury received her BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art and her Master of Architecture and Certificate in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Khoury’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions in Cleveland and Columbus, OH; New York City and Troy, NY; Chicago, IL; Baltimore, MD; Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh, PA; Waukesha, WI; and Subhan, Kuwait. She was recently awarded the 2025 Artist Residency at the Arab American National Museum, the 2025 PROOF Fellowship at Zygote Press, and the 2024 Creative Impact Fund. In 2018, two sculptures by Khoury were featured in the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ exhibition series, Women to Watch.

Website

photo credit: Zoe Heller

Victoria Udondian

Udondian’s work is driven by her interest in textiles and the potential for clothing to shape identity, informed by the histories and tacit meanings embedded in everyday materials. She creates work that questions notions of cultural identity and post-colonial positions in relation to her experiences growing up in Nigeria. In 2020, Udondian was named a Guggenheim fellow. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including The Inaugural Nigerian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial-An Excerpt, Fisher Landau Centre for the Arts, The Bronx Museum, Children’s Museum of Manhattan,The National Museum, Lagos, and the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. Udondian received an MFA in Sculpture and New Genres from Columbia University, attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and received a B.A. in painting from the University of Uyo, Nigeria. She is currently a Visiting Associate professor of Art at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, New York.

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photo credit: Nicola Rigo

Jordan Wong

photo credit: Kaela Speicher

As a Chinese American whose childhood was filled with anime, manga, and video games, Jordan Wong (WONGFACE) creates drawings, characters, and icons to contemplate the hero’s journey, the game theory of leveling up throughout life, and the Ultimate Self. Wong has produced large-scale installations and public artwork for the city of Cleveland as well as exhibited at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Massillon Museum, and Akron Art Museum. In 2024, Wong was one of seven artists—selected from over 100 applicants—awarded the Transformative Arts Fund (TAF), a $3 million initiative supporting public art projects led by artists in partnership with institutions based in the City of Cleveland. Wong has artwork in the collections of Meta, the Akron Art Museum, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Laura and Fred Bidwell, and other private collectors.

Website

Lorena Alvarez

Lorena Alvarez is a Mexican contemporary environmental landscape painter and printmaker based in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. Her practice investigates the fractured relationship between humanity and the natural world, examining the destruction of landscapes in the name of progress, the abandonment of industrial spaces, and nature's persistent reclamation of these environments. Working primarily in oil painting, printmaking, and mixed media, Alvarez creates atmospheric, three-dimensional canvases that blur the boundary between reality and abstraction. Through layered surfaces, vibrant color palettes, and expressive gestural brushwork, she captures the rugged, ever-changing terrain of the Rust Belt and the shores of Lake Erie. Her work explores the intersection of industrial development and ecological resilience, inviting viewers to reflect on the lasting impact of human intervention and the regenerative power of nature. Alvarez received her Master of Fine Arts from Pennsylvania Western University Edinboro. Her work has been exhibited at the Erie Art Museum and in regional galleries throughout Pennsylvania.

Website

Natasha Kravchenko

Natasha Kravchenko is a photographer and multimedia visual artist working in fine art photography, exploring the intricate dynamics between individuals' inner and outer worlds through psychologically nuanced imagery and experimental methods of artistic expression. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Pennsylvania State University, where her thesis exhibition "Reflexion" was presented at the Zoller Gallery, along with a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Voronezh State University in Russia. Her work has been shown internationally, including exhibitions at Loosen Art gallery in Rome, the Art Gallery of Alberta in Canada, Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, and Art Square Gallery in New York, and has appeared in F-Stop Magazine. Kravchenko's practice centers on the belief that examining the interplay between people's inner and outer selves opens pathways toward self-development, encouraging viewers toward a more harmonious and integrated sense of identity.

Website