Exhibitions
F$#K ICE: Rainy Days Gallery Exhibit Opening Reception
Across the country, exhibitions addressing state power, immigration, and civil liberties have been quietly canceled or withdrawn. At the University of North Texas, an exhibition criticizing ICE was removed before it opened. The Art Museum of the Americas canceled scheduled exhibitions amid federal scrutiny tied to shifting administrative priorities. The precedent is not new. In 1989, the Corcoran Gallery of Art canceled Robert Mapplethorpe’s retrospective under political pressure, igniting a national debate on censorship and public funding. More recently, Indiana University canceled a major retrospective of Samia Halaby amid political backlash.
These examples reflect a pattern: institutions that rely on public funding, boards, or major donors often calculate risk before defending artistic speech.
Rainy Days Gallery operates independently. We do not answer to a federal funding body. We do not require institutional approval to exhibit politically engaged work. That independence is structural, not rhetorical.
Our long-term vision has been to function as an international gallery, bringing global artists to Denver and presenting Denver artists abroad. Immigration is not abstract to us. Cultural exchange is our operating model. Yet current enforcement tactics and administrative policies have created an environment where cross-border collaboration carries heightened risk. Visa approvals, artist mobility, and institutional partnerships are increasingly influenced by political posture.
We are also witnessing broader expansion in enforcement reach and budget allocation. ICE’s authority has, in documented cases, extended beyond non-citizens, raising civil liberties concerns among legal scholars and advocacy organizations. At the same time, federal incentives and enforcement bonuses have grown to levels that eclipse the annual salaries of many public school teachers. That contrast is not rhetorical. It reflects national spending priorities.
Art is political and emotional whether intentionally or passively. Even neutrality signals alignment. Galleries are not neutral storage spaces. They are cultural actors.
F$#K ICE asserts that immigration is foundational to American identity, that freedom of expression must remain intact beyond political cycles, and that art remains one of the first places history is written.
April 11. 4–6 PM.
The exhibition will be structured with a focused presentation of several primary artists whose works anchor the central dialogue of the show. These pieces will occupy the main walls of the gallery, creating a deliberate throughline in tone, scale, and conceptual rigor. Surrounding that core presentation, we will install a community wall featuring smaller, affordable works contributed by a broader range of artists. This section is designed to increase access and participation, allowing emerging voices to be included and collectors at all levels to engage. The structure reflects both curatorial intention and collective presence: a defined argument supported by an open platform.
