When visualizing a gallery, what do you see? Do you see a large, open space, with fine art displayed neatly on the walls? Perhaps pedestals presenting glorious statues? Or maybe, do you see a hallway with artwork lining the corridors?
That’s what you see at Panopticon Gallery in Boston. A perfectly clean hallway with well-preserved walls, lit up to show gorgeous works of art produced by artists near and far. From treasured old-school artists like Alfred Stieglitz to contemporary new wave artists like Ann Prochilo and Rebecca Clark, Panopticon has been around since 1971, making it one of the longest-running galleries in Boston.
On display until April 27th are works from five artists. Each artist was hand-picked by a jury that concluded them to be the cream of the crop. These five artists submitted a variety of photographs to be displayed in Panopticon’s first exhibition of 2026, otherwise known as First Look: 2026.
Each artist has emotionally expressive, deeply personal, and powerful work on display. As you walk down that hallway, stop by each photograph, and read the artist’s statements, every step creates a new perspective and understanding of the world around you. The best part? Panopticon knew they couldn’t only choose five artists, so at the very end of the hall is First Look: A Second Glance, where they chose even more artists to display on one wall together.
The Artists
All the five artists chosen for the exhibit come from different communities. They presented Panopticon with authentic works that give us a glimpse into how they view the world.
Josh Aronson
Miami-based artist Josh Aronson strives to capture the beauty in community and a sense of belonging, setting staged narratives to show his perspective and reshaping the viewer’s sense of masculinity. Florida Boys is a project that Josh started in 2020 and just recently finished.
During the pandemic, when “isolation, fear, and uncertainty reshaped life,” he started using backroads in Florida with others to learn the land. He worked with people to create scenes of rest, tenderness, and play, drawing inspiration from Justine Kurland’s Girl Pictures and photographs of the Florida School for Boys.
Beyond the camera, Aronson founded Photo Book Speed Date–a series of events throughout the country where artists gather to share their favorite photos or art books in a speed date-like setting (minus the romantic implications). With artist residencies scheduled in Florida and Georgia and upcoming gallery exhibitions in Illinois, California, and Georgia, the first half of the year marks an exciting and expansive chapter in his career. To explore more of Aronson’s work, check out his website and follow him on Instagram!
Donna Garcia
Photographer, curator, educator, podcaster, and arts advocate Donna Garcia investigates performative potential and existence within liminal space. She incorporates motion into her images to create “empathic recreations in a fine art narrative,” blurring the line between documentation and embodiment.
At Panopticon, her photo series Indian Land for Sale speaks a thousand words. She aims to give a voice to indigenous tribes in Georgia by recreating the horror of the Trail of Tears, a forced relocation of indigenous peoples so white farmers could take over the land. She captures these photos from the tribes’ perspectives, presenting the story in stark black and white photographs that demonstrate loss and torment.
Garcia explains that “this work doesn’t try to reconstruct history in a documentary way. Instead, it moves into a space between past and present, where memory, loss, survival, and resilience coexist.” By utilizing “ambiguity, motion, unstable light, and visual ‘draughts of air,’” the images remain unresolved.
Garcia has shown work in several galleries and has been nominated for multiple awards for her art. From the Cape Cod Art Museum to the Los Angeles Center of Photography and even F-Stop Magazine, Donna Garcia is a force to be reckoned with. Drawing upon her museum education and collections experience, she has run multiple galleries, and she has also managed and executed major art installations throughout the US.
Her current work focuses on the Rights of Nature and is called The Two Moons. Keep an eye out for this photo series by checking out her website and following her on Instagram!
(Donna Garcia)
Anastasia Sierra
Anastasia Sierra has composed a photo series that many adults can relate to–the bittersweet relationship between parent and child. Currently on display at Panopticon, The Witching Hour is about the emotional and psychological toll of becoming a mother. The photos engulf the viewer in the hardships of motherhood: the nightmares, hallucinations, and constant fears that play through a mother’s mind at the thought of her child.
She frames these images with a dream-like perspective, touching upon her nightmares of her father telling her “he’s only got two weeks to live” or being “late to pick up my son from school and never see him again.” These are universal fears amongst parents, and Sierra strategically captures them through bright, uncomfortable colors that are almost intrusive compared to the darkness behind them, showing how automatic they are.
Sierra’s series has won an award from Lens Culture and has been featured in both Dear Dave Magazine and Musee Magazine, showing how impactful a single series of work can be. To see what she is up to next, check out her website and follow her on Instagram!
Kevin Williamson
An artist and educator from New York, Kevin Williamson, approaches his work with an old soul. Using a large format view camera, he is “drawn toward moments where human presence and the natural environment intersect.” The photographs shown at Panopticon capture the traits and attributes seen in the Hudson Valley.
Beyond the surface level of the photographs, Williamson captures themes of decay and erosion as well as life and death–aspects of the Hudson Valley and the general world around us that can go undetected. Through patience, observation, and careful composition, Williamson shows viewers how he sees the world.
Besides this exhibition, Williamson is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Hartford’s International Limited-Residency MFA Photography program. To see more of his work and any future spaces where it might be shown, check out his website and follow him on Instagram!
Laura Ritch
A graduate of the Art Institute of Boston, Laura Ritch graduated with a BFA in photography. A few years later, she started nursing school at UMASS Boston and stopped producing art for a stretch. However, COVID gave her the time and motivation to return to it, starting with cyanotypes. She soon began teaching the cyanotype process at Chases Garage, a local artist studio.
Her work, currently displayed at Panopticon, is all about family. She explores the “mental, physical, and marked space in which my family and I currently reside.” While such a simple concept, she wanted to “find the light” within the literal and metaphorical exploration of motherhood and her home.
Ritch says, “My image making comes from a place of joy…I was so often bogged down with ‘concept’ and ‘meaning'”. She takes photos for her own enjoyment and determines the meaning behind them later. As an artist trying to find her voice, she participates in an online photo critique class through Photophlo and recommends the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert to aspiring creatives. To see more of her work, including a preview of her next project, head to her Instagram!
Supporting the Artists
The photographs from Josh Aronson, Donna Garcia, Anastasia Sierra, Kevin Williamson, and Laura Ritch are all on display and available for purchase at Panopticon Gallery inside the Hotel Commonwealth in Boston. Visitors and readers interested in purchasing any of these pieces are encouraged to contact the gallery directly. Additionally, select artists have previous works for sale from previous exhibitions and collections.
Beyond offering artwork for purchase and allowing artist opportunities to display their work, Panopticon also has a photographic lab called Panopticon Imaging. The lab offers film development to support the creative process from start to finish.
First Look 2026 is on display until April 27th, 2026.
