PHOTO: ISAAC POOLE
An exploration of identity, transformation, and self-discovery through fine art, couture, and film.
Exhibition Statement
There comes a point in life when survival is no longer enough.
When the very things that once protected us begin to confine us. When the identities we have carried, the lives we have built, and the versions of ourselves we have learned to inhabit no longer reflect the fullness of who we are capable of becoming.
It is a place of profound uncertainty. A space between what is familiar and what has yet to reveal itself. Where growth demands more than resilience, and the courage to move forward must exist without the assurance of knowing where the journey will lead.
BECOMING was born within that space.
It explores what it means to confront the boundaries of our own existence and recognize that the life we have known may no longer be the life we are meant to live.
We often celebrate the outcome: the rebirth, the breakthrough, the emergence of something beautiful. Rarely do we acknowledge what precedes it. The grief of releasing what is familiar. The resistance that accompanies surrender. The quiet, often invisible work of learning to exist beyond the person we have always known ourselves to be.
There is a particular vulnerability in that process. To surrender is to relinquish the illusion of control. To grow is to accept that certain parts of ourselves, however familiar or comforting, cannot accompany us into every season of life.
Yet there is also freedom in the unknown.
THE EXHIBITION
BECOMING is presented in All of Us II at RIT City Art Space. For the second edition of the All of Us exhibition, curator Unique Fair has brought together six emerging women artists whose work explores confrontations with idealized, constructed and multiple selves.
the works
BECOMING
2026 | Sculptural Self-Portrait
Oil paint, plaster, and mixed media on canvas
49 × 78 in. · Not for Sale
Rupture
2026 | Wearable Sculpture
Nuno-felted wool and textiles, latex, feathers, tulle, and mixed media
Apart of the BECOMING collection
Reclamation
2026 | Wearable Sculpture
Nuno-felted wool and textiles, latex, and mixed media
Apart of the BECOMING collection
VENUE
RIT City Art Space
ADDRESS
32 Adventure Place, Rochester, NY
OPENING
Friday, November 6, 6–9 PM · Free, all welcome
THE ARTIST
Erin Nesmith
Erin Nesmith is a interdisciplinary artist and fashion designer whose work explores identity, transformation, and the relationship between the female form and artistic expression.
Working across fine art, fashion, and sculptural design, Nesmith approaches each medium as an opportunity to challenge conventional boundaries of form, material, and storytelling. Her creative practice is distinguished by an interest in dimensionality, intricate construction, and the intersection of personal narrative and visual symbolism.
As the founder and creative director of her eponymous art and couture house, ERIN NESMITH, she has developed a distinctive design language centered on sculptural silhouettes, corsetry, and expressive craftsmanship.
With Becoming, Nesmith marks a significant return to exhibiting new fine art after eight years, bringing together her artistic disciplines in one of her most personal and ambitious works to date.