visual voices 2026: press fast forward

Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning (JCAL) has partnered with Resorts World New York City to showcase artists in their acclaimed Red Wall Art Gallery. We seek multidisciplinary artists to display original work for Press Fast Forward, an exhibition conceived and curated by William Bentley, as part of JCAL’s Visual Voices curatorial initiative.

About the Exhibition:

This exhibition explores the artists’ imagination and recollection of the past alongside their vision of the future in an age of technological acceleration. Through framed, two-dimensional works, the exhibit reflects on how technology moves at lightning speed, shifting from analog to digital, from dream to reality, inviting artists to consider its profound impact on communication, creativity, and culture. 

Technology is not only a tool of progress but also a mirror of memory. It shapes the way we express history, telling bittersweet stories of the past through nostalgic recollection while also fueling our hopes, dreams, and fears for the future. Moments in time, whether aided, transformed, or even degenerated by technology, are revealed through the artists’ vision, offering a layered dialogue between remembrance and innovation. 

Some artworks may even incorporate technology directly, drawing from both old and new sources: vintage equipment, outdated machinery, decals, symbols, wires, communication devices, or the visual language of video games. Still other works may experiment with contemporary tools and digital aesthetics, showing how technology itself can become a medium, metaphor, and message. 

From nostalgic videotapes, audio cassettes, flip phones, CDs, and calculators to today’s smart devices, flash drives, and artificial intelligence systems, Press Fast Forward traces the evolving landscape of innovation and connection. What do we carry forward from the past? How do we communicate now? Does technology serve as a bridge to the future or a break from history? 

Press Fast Forward reveals a wide spectrum of responses: joyful, haunting, insightful, and thought-provoking. Through painting, photography, textiles, and mixed media, the exhibition demonstrates how rapidly changing technologies influence artistic expression, identity, and imagination. 

About Visual Voices:

Visual Voices is a three-year curatorial fellowship that provides emerging and mid-career curators with financial support, professional experience, and mentorship. By providing artists with a radically accessible platform and financial support, Visual Voices reflects JCAL’s conviction that a diverse community isn’t defined top-down by a cultural institution, but rather by affording agency and power to a community to define itself. Visual Voices fellows curate a majority of the exhibitions at JCAL, ensuring JCAL consistently features the unique creativity and full cultural diversity of Queens. Curators consistently platform the work of BIIPOC visual artists by offering them opportunities to experiment and take creative risks, and by connecting broader communities with their work.