New York-born, Los Angeles-based artist Uzumaki Cepeda is a photographer and fiber sculptor who creates immersive, site-specific installations covered in faux fur. As a first-generation American woman of Dominican heritage, her faux fur tableaux act as soft spaces for black and brown people who feel unprotected by American public life and policies. This installation portrays Cepeda’s daydream of a safe and happy childhood mixed with the loud palette of New York bodegas, living rooms in the Dominican Republic, and freshly painted acrylic nails. Uzumaki’s soft, brightly colored faux fur transforms ordinary spaces and discarded objects into kaleidoscopic environments that offer us another possible world—vibrant, inclusive, and safe for everyone.

Exhibition Photography: Cristine Armosilla