May
6
Exhibitions
Nya Patrinos: Crossed and Entangled Waters
Opens Thursday, May 6, 6-8pm
About the Exhibition
Patrinos traces slavery’s entangled centuries through the intersecting Key West histories of ten ships: three illegal slavers off the Cuba coast in 1860; the three US Navy ships that intercepted them; and the three ships that later removed the survivors to Liberia. Before being forcibly relocated, the 1,432 “liberated” Africans spent 85 days confined in Key West, where at least 295 of them died. The tenth ship, the Henrietta Maria, wrecked off of Key West 160 years earlier after selling 191 captive Africans in Jamaica, later yielding one of the world’s most studied collections of slave artifacts.
The Los Angeles-based Patrinos encountered these histories as a PEAR in 2025, and returns with a body of work on paper and fabric that continues her practice rooted in social justice, telling stories that both resonate locally and continue to shape forced migrations in the US and internationally today.
First Thursday Open House
Thursday, May 6, 6-8pm
About the Artist
Nya Patrinos has worked as a Decorator and Designer in Film and Television since 1996. She was awarded an MFA in Set Design from UCSD/La Jolla Playhouse, a BA in Design of the Environment from University of Pennsylvania, and a Certificate in Illustration from Otis College of Art and Design. Nya was a 2023-2024 Women in Film Artisan Fellow in Production Design. She received Dramalogue Award in Set Design for the play “Flyin’ West” at International City Theatre. In addition, Ms. Patrinos has an Emmy nomination in Art Direction/Set Decoration for her set decoration on “Transparent”, an Art Directors Guild nomination for her sets on “The Morning Show”, and an SDSA Award nomination for her decor on “Pam and Tommy.”
