Superposition Gallery Presents ‘Mami Wata’ at Eastville’s Heritage House Museum in Sag Harbor

Superposition Gallery is presenting “Mami Wata,” a group exhibition exploring Black spirituality curated by founder Storm Ascher, now through November 30 at Eastville Community Historical Society’s Heritage House Museum in Sag Harbor.

“Mami Wata,” named after the powerful water deity revered in African and Afro-Caribbean traditions, brings together works that explore Black spirituality, feminine energy, ancestral memory and the divine.

“This is not an exhibition — it’s an altar,” says Ascher. “A gathering of artists who summon the celestial, the matrilineal, the mythic. Their works ripple and reference like the goddess herself — fluid, powerful, plural.”

The exhibition features artwork by Derrick Adams, Patrick Alston, Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Sanford Biggers, Layo Bright, Michael A. Butler, Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Renée Cox, Damien Davis, Ellon Gibbs, Ashanté Kindle, Audrey Lyall, Eilen Itzel Mena, Ludovic Nkoth, Tariku Shiferaw and Khari Turner.

Notable highlights include:

Renée Cox, a longtime Amagansett resident, contributes “Queen Nanny” (2004), a self-portrait from her Queen Nanny of the Maroons series honoring the legendary Jamaican resistance leader.

Tariku Shiferaw presents “Kuba and Nummo” (2023), two six-foot-wide abstract paintings from his Mata Semay series, titled after the Amharic phrase for “night sky,” reflecting traditions of stargazing and mythology.

Layo Bright unveils “Storm Ascher in Yemọja Blue” (2025), a kiln-fused glass portrait set in a mirrored frame as part of her ongoing Bloom series, first introduced at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.

Khari Turner donates Protea and Gloriosa, two monumental paintings created with ocean water from across the African diaspora, representing ancestral spirits and lineage.

Set within the Eastville Museum, the show is rooted in the legacy of Sag Harbor’s SANS neighborhoods (Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest and Ninevah). The exhibition also marks the launch of the Hamptons Black Arts Council Contemporary Art Collection, with eight works being donated to the Eastville Community Historical Society. Ascher founded HBAC to preserve and elevate Black arts institutions on the East End. She was honored at the society’s Second Annual Juneteenth Jubilee on June 19.

“We honor visionaries like Amaza Lee Meredith, who dreamed Black architecture into the Atlantic coast,” says Ascher. “This marks a new era: the unveiling of Eastville’s first contemporary collection, stewarded by The Hamptons Black Arts Council. A living archive. A radical act of preservation. Once a Green Book destination, Eastville remains a sanctuary. And now, its story will be told in paint, glass, textile, ritual, abstraction, and spirit.”

“Mami Wata” is a celebration of resistance, survival and the sacred. Through ritual, memory, myth and abstraction, it reclaims cultural space and tells stories held in the soil of Sag Harbor.

“This is a radical act of preservation,” added Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, executive director of Eastville Community Historical Society. “Storm Ascher embodies defiant leadership. In the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, we celebrate those who disrupt and dismantle systems of oppression through art and action.”

Admission to the show is free. Eastville Heritage House Museum is at 139 Hampton Street in Sag Harbor. For details, visit superpositiongallery.com.