The Opening Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition Generative alterities. Installed across the 41 Division st Storefront, the exhibition inaugurates The Opening Gallery’s program of projects in Lower East Manhattan.

In an era of hardened borders and algorithmic feeds, this group exhibition asks: Can difference be our most powerful tool for regeneration? The future is generative. The future is alterity.

Confronting the rise of "tech feudalism," the exhibition creates a charged space for dialogue between artists from the Global South & Global North. It's a generative collocation of perspectives on power, and the social narratives that shape our world. Experience performances, installations, and powerful critiques that challenge passive consumption.

In the shadow of a resurgent market-oriented politics in the United States—a moment defined by hardened borders, cultural parochialism, and the aggressive consolidation of power—the question of technology's role in society has reached a critical juncture. Artificial Intelligence, often heralded as a neutral, progressive force, is rapidly being subsumed by a new "tech feudalism," where a handful of corporate sovereigns command our data, our attention, and increasingly, the very narratives that shape our reality. This is not merely a business model; it is a cultural and political project that thrives on polarization and the erosion of shared, complex truths.

The group exhibition Generative alterities confronts this reality by proposing a radical methodology: the strategic and critical juxtaposition of voices from the Global South and the Global North. In a climate that weaponizes difference, this exhibition insists that difference itself—when placed in a careful, curated dialogue—is the most potent source of intellectual, aesthetic, and political regeneration. It is a space of friction and fusion where the politics of identity, particularly the representation and embodiment of gender and femininity, are rigorously explored. It is not about a harmonious fusion, but about creating a charged field where distinct historical experiences and critical perspectives can interact, conflict, and ultimately generate new ways of seeing and thinking beyond the simplistic binaries that dominate our discourse.

Curated by Sozita Goudouna, PhD this exhibition expands on the tradition of situating art within urgent geopolitical frames. The included artists, from diverse origins, employ strategies of liveness and theatricality to implicate the viewer, challenging the passive consumption encouraged by both algorithmic feeds and authoritarian posturing.