What: thems. phoenix presents an Artist in Residence Showcase featuring short films by our current resident artists. Join us for an evening of experimental storytelling, moving image, and conversation as the artists share works developed during their residency. The night offers a glimpse into their evolving projects accomplished during their time at thems.
On View:
Patrick De Leon, Museum of Grief, 2026
The Museum of Grief is imagined as a gallery installation that turns family memory into a physical, moving archive. The exhibition brings together a video installation made from familial images and found footage alongside cyanotypes created from family photographs. Together, the works build a layered meditation on grief, care, inheritance, and the unstable nature of remembering.
Together, the video and cyanotypes create a space where grief is not treated as a single event but as an archive constantly revisited. The gallery becomes a museum of personal loss, where each image serves as a diorama: a scene preserved, reconstructed, and viewed again from the present. The work asks what it means to inherit stories after the people who carried them are gone, and how images can hold both tenderness and violence, both proof and absence.
At its core, The Museum of Grief is about lineage. It is about grandparents as caretakers, protectors, witnesses, and complicated sources of belonging. It considers how family photographs can become sacred after loss, and how found footage can speak to memories that were never fully recorded. Through repetition, layering, and the fragile blue imprint of cyanotype, the exhibition creates a visual language for mourning: one that does not try to resolve grief but instead gives it a place to live.
Lan Lesmeister, The Door Into Fire, 2026
Cruelty Fields, 2026, film
At the height of love, all there is to worry about is time. This film, through 14 distinct sections, journeys two lovers through the life cycle of love within the rural landscape of Missouri.At the height of love, all there is to worry about is time. This film, through 14 distinct sections, journeys two lovers through the life cycle of love within the rural landscape of Missouri.
Schedule:
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm: Welcome and Happy Hour
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm: Artist Presentations
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm: Exhibition Open
Where: There Space - 2431 E Van Buren St, Phoenix, Arizona 85008
Why: Our first Artist-in-Residence cohort served as an important pilot program and trial phase created to help the thems. phoenix team thoughtfully shape and refine the residency experience. Through guidance, feedback, and intentional trial-and-error, our inaugural residents collaborated closely with thems. staff to build a responsible, and worthwhile experience for future artists.
Our goal is to continue developing the program into an enduring space for artists to deepen their art practice while engaging and supporting the local queer community through community-driven programming across Phoenix, AZ and alongside partner organizations.