At Its Root
In a celebration of the vast diversity of cultures that embody this country, particularly the city of Philadelphia, At Its Root explores the works of three local artists who examine the meaning of origin, ideas of home, and the construction of identity, honoring the people and history that make the city.
Philadelphia has had a remarkable history of migration since its origins. This exhibition delves into the multiplicity and richness of its people and art, fostering a sense of unity. Colette Fu, Duwenavue Sante Johnson, and Dejeonge Reese exemplify what it means to hold cultural identity with pride.
At Its Root, is part of Radical Americana a citywide initiative organized by The Clay Studio that unites Philadelphia’s leading arts and cultural institutions through a series of exhibitions showcasing research-driven work by contemporary artists. These exhibitions celebrate the city’s historic role in shaping America’s cultural identity, civic life, and creative spirit, while inviting reflection and dialogue about the nation’s present and future.
Colette Fu
b. North Brunswick, NJ
Colette Fu is a Philadelphia-based artist who received her MFA in Fine Arts Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003, and soon after, began devising complex compositions that incorporate photography and pop-up paper engineering. Her pop-up books are housed in esteemed institutions such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Library of Congress, the Getty Research Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many private and rare archive collections. Her most significant body of work, "We Are Tiger Dragon People, is an ongoing visual exploration of China's ethnic minority groups. Colette created the world's largest pop-up book, Tao Hua Yuan Ji, which measures 14 x 21 feet, which people could enter at the TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image.
Fu's accolades include a 2024 Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Grant, a 2023 Artworks Grant, a 2020 Joan Mitchell Painters & Sculptors Grant, and the 2018 Meggendorfer Prize for best paper-engineered artist book. Additionally, she was honored with a 2008 Fulbright Research Fellowship to China and received grants from various foundations and organizations such as the Independence Foundation, the Leeway Foundation, En Foco, Red Bull, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Puffin Foundation and the Society for Photographic Education. She has participated in fully funded artist residencies, including those at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Sacatar, the Vermont Studio Center, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Visual Studies Workshop, the Millay Colony and the Alden B. Dow Center for Creativity. Colette exhibits widely and has had numerous solo exhibitions, such as at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Taubman Museum, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Philadelphia Athenaeum, and many university art galleries.
As a devoted educator, Fu conducts artmaking classes to amplify community voices through pop-up paper-engineered projects. She leads pop-up courses and community workshops internationally.
Statement
“Growing up, in North Brunswick, New Jersey, I was not proud of my Chinese heritage. After graduating from college, I went to my mother's birthplace in Yunnan Province in Southwest China to teach English. Translated as “South of the Clouds,” Yunnan is China’s most southwestern Province, sharing borders with Tibet, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. With snow-capped mountains to the Northwest and tropical rainforests to the South, Yunnan is rich in natural resources and has China's most significant diversity of plant life.
This diversity extends to its population as well. I taught at the Yunnan Nationalities University in the capital of Kunming. While in Yunnan, I discovered that my great-grandfather had not only helped establish the university where I was teaching but was a member of the powerful black Nuosu Yi tribe, as well as the governor and general of Yunnan during the transitional years of WWII. I stayed in Yunnan for three years; these experiences helped me find a new sense of pride and identity, encouraging me to pursue a profession as a photographer and artist. In 2008, with the help of a Fulbright fellowship, I traveled once again to Yunnan, specifically to photograph for a pop-up book of the 25 ethnic minority groups that reside there. 25 of the 55 minority tribes of China reside in Yunnan and comprise less than 9% of the nation’s population, with the Han representing the majority. Many people inside China and most people outside are unaware of this cultural richness. My work is a personal journey that also captures a brief portrait of their existence. We are not a monolith.
Traveling through the mountainous Yi landscape, an old Yi man told me, “Although an eagle flies far into the distance, its wings will fold back. For the Yi, the ultimate goal of life is to find the path of your ancestors.” With pop-up books, I want to eliminate the boundaries between people, the book, installation, photography, craft, sculpture…”
Duwenavue Sante Johnson
b. Central Coast, California
Duwenavue Sante Johnson, a contemporary artist, is deeply connected to her diverse ancestry, which spans over 400 years and encompasses both the northern and southern regions of the United States. She grapples with complexities like manifest destiny and migratory freedoms while channeling her energy into creating a better world through her art and engaging with the paths that have shaped us all.
Her career began with an apprenticeship in Bangkok alongside artists of the Royal Thai National Painter, Chakrabhand Posayakrit, focusing on traditional mural arts at Wat Tridhosthep Worawihan, then transitioning to textile arts in Shantiniketan, India, and New Delhi. She has a BA in Communication Arts from SNHU, gained a Certificate/Diploma from the Royal School of Needlework, UK, and a Diploma from Ecole Lesage, Certificate from Atelier Zardosi, Zardosi, Paris, France. Lastly, a Certificate and residency under Master Hang San Soo, Important Intangible Cultural Property, Seoul, South Korea. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at A.I.R gallery and 201@205 gallery NYC, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Ubuntu Gallery, Mural Arts, Philadelphia, Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute, London, U.K, CICA Museum South Korea, LaNao gallery, CDMX, Mexico, to name a few.
Most recently, Johnson joined A.I.R as a national member, her hand embroidery was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, and was selected to be historically archived in the Smithsonian for her labor as a Presidential embroiderer starting in 2026.
Statement
“Through a long art journey, she's known as an accomplished hand embroiderer and contemporary artist, while not limiting herself to any one medium. Her work is influenced by her world travels, where she draws from the colors, patterns, and textures of nature. She incorporates many styles of painting and textile work, from formal education guidance to being influenced by many cultures. Years spent absorbing history and all forms of art and textiles energize creativity.
Using traditional arts education and mastery in the fine art of needlework allows for my belief structure and art to be balanced. Apprenticed and trained, I have worked as an artist in the US, Thailand, India, South Korea, France, the UK, Spain, and Sweden, primarily focused on painting and textile arts. As a teacher and worker of needle arts, time is spent focused on precision and the details found in the art of Heraldry. Every detail, from creating a design, tracing, and stitching, to displaying and lecturing on the value of craftsmanship, must be of the highest value and quality. Painting and printmaking are my expressive self and the nature of how the world is reflected in me. Most of my time in the painting realm is focused on dialogue using watercolor, gouache mediums, and vintage and newly created Japanese stencils to allow for texture and color depth. Print work is performed on handmade silk fabric and paper. Every environment has its own issues with how to maintain an eco-component in its practice. Creating practices that lead to a slow art movement allows for the stewardship of space and teaching opportunities.”
DeJeonge Reese
b. Yeadon, PA
DeJeonge Reese (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator from Yeadon, PA, whose work uses material exploration to tell stories rooted in Black history, ancestry, and identity. Working across mixed media, textiles, sculpture, installation, and performance, Reese creates narratives that honor inherited knowledge, lived experience, and ancestral labor. She holds degrees from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and Moore College of Art and Design.
Her practice is grounded in historical and ancestral research alongside personal experience, often bridging past and present through archival materials, oral histories, and family research. Black hair is a central material, combined with burlap, fabric, found objects, and handmade structures to tell layered stories of migration, labor, care, survival, and identity.
Reese’s work blends personal and collective Black histories to challenge dominant representations and reclaim authorship over Black identity. She has exhibited in Philadelphia, New York, and beyond and is a 2023 Mural Arts Philadelphia Black Artist Fellow and the current Fibers/Textile Coordinator for Arrowmont’s Spring Pentaculum.
Statement
“My work is rooted in storytelling through material exploration. I use mixed media, textiles, fiber, sculpture, installation, and performance to examine Black history, ancestry, and identity—allowing materials to hold memory, labor, and lived experience.
Grounded in historical and ancestral research as well as personal experience, my practice often bridges past and present. I draw from archival sources, oral histories, and family research, translating inherited knowledge into contemporary forms. Rather than presenting history as fixed or distant, I approach it as something embodied, carried, and continuously reshaped.
Black hair is a central material in my work, functioning as fiber, archive, and connector. I pair it with materials such as burlap, fabric, and found objects to create layered narratives of migration, labor, care, survival, and identity. Each material choice is intentional—reflecting the ways cultural knowledge can be passed down through objects, and oral histories.
Through my work, I aim to challenge dominant narratives while creating space for remembrance, reflection, and reclamation. Material exploration becomes a method of honoring those who came before me, asserting Black presence, and inviting viewers to engage with history as something deeply personal, living, and ongoing.”
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