SOLD: Galleria Comunale di Arte Contemporanea di Monfalcone, Italy.
My artwork, "WELCOME!," exhibited as part of the prestigious American Beauty exhibition in Padua, Italy, is a critical confrontation with the historical reality of U.S. immigration policy. Standing alongside works by luminaries like Andy Warhol, Banksy, Annie Leibovitz, and Shepard Fairey, my piece uses an antagonistic stance to unmask the enduring myth of the "golden door."
The iconic inscription on the Statue of Liberty—"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."—promises universal welcome. However, my work argues that this has been, and remains, a myth.
"WELCOME!" reveals a history, largely unknown to the mainstream public, in which the United States has consistently used its laws to marginalize, limit, or outright ban those ruled inadmissible based on race and religion. From the Naturalization Act of 1790, which restricted citizenship to "free white persons," to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act of 1917, and the national-origins quotas of the 1920s, the legal system has historically been a mechanism of racial and religious preference.
The piece seeks to expose the hypocrisy between the nation's soaring rhetoric of open arms and the exclusionary reality of its legislative history. By presenting this critical, confrontational view, "WELCOME!" challenges the viewer to look beyond the myth and acknowledge the persistent, systemic marginalization embedded within the U.S. immigration narrative since 1790.
Keith Francis New Bedford-based Artist Exhibiting at the Altinate Cultural Center | San Gaetano, Padua, Italy American Beauty Exhibition: September 13, 2023 – January 21, 2024.
Collection of the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Contemporanea (Municipal Gallery of
Contemporary Art), Monfalcone, Italy.
Contemporary Art), Monfalcone, Italy.
