Gallery guide, "Everything is Everything: Will Kasso Condry"

GALLERY GUIDE JULY 10 – SEPTEMBER 12, 2026

WILL KASSO CONDRY Kelis the Afronaut, 2026

Knight of Wands, 2023

Will Kasso Condry brings his distinctive Afro-surrealist style to the BCA Center with Everything is Everything, an introspective exhibition of paintings and works on paper that unfolds as an immersive experience. Condry is the co-founder of Juniper Creative Arts, an award-winning Vermont-based family collective known for community murals and culturally rooted arts programming that uplifts belonging and visual storytelling. Rooted in the narrative world of The Afro-Pollinators series, Condry employs vibrant colors, celestial motifs, and compelling characters to connect viewers with Kelis, an Afronaut who journeys across terrestrial and cosmic landscapes in search of the knowledge and resources needed to heal her family.

While the paintings follow Kelis’s quest, a series of illustrations created during a difficult chapter in the artist’s life reveals another, more personal, story. While producing these works, Condry was navigating illness and was ultimately diagnosed with pulmonary sarcoidosis. These drawings function as both an act of processing and documentation, revealing an interior narrative that mirrors the expansive mythology of the paintings.

Everything is Everything presents both a quest for knowledge and a remedy, as well as Condry’s passage through illness toward understanding and restoration Together, the works suggest that healing is not linear and that the personal and the mythic are not separate, but reflections of one another.

Building on the themes of knowledge-sharing, stewardship, and collective care, this exhibition coincides with a four-week youth artist apprenticeship program led by Juniper Creative Arts. Located in the back half of the Main Floor Gallery at the BCA Center, visitors can glimpse the classroom in action as the Juniper Creative team and youth apprentices create a mural exploring the intricate network of reservoirs, pipes, pumps, sewers, and storm drains that supply clean water, protect Lake Champlain, and support a resilient community.

The program will culminate in a public mural installed in Burlington this fall.

CHECKLIST

Everything is Everything: Will Kasso Condry, BCA Center installation, 2026

Self Portrait, 2026 oil and acrylic on repurposed canvas 40x29.5in Vititi the Sage, 2026 oil on repurposed pine 24x48in Kelis the Afronaut, 2026 oil on repurposed pine 36x48in Alkimila, 2026 oil on repurposed pine 24x48in

Eulogy for a Dying Mountain, 2026 Graphite, pen, ink, alcohol marker on bristol board 49x19.33in (framed) Things Fall Apart, 2025 graphite, pen, ink, and alcohol marker on bristol board 11 x 28in unframed 17.25x33 3/8in framed Firefly, 2025 graphite, pen, ink, and alcohol marker on bristol board 17x28in framed

Life Support: Dandelion Triptych, 2026 Aerosol, acrylic, soil, and rain water on repurposed pine 12x60in ea, 36x60in (3 units) Knight of Wands, 2023 oil on canvas 38x30in Iya, 2025-6 oil and acrylic on repurposed canvas 38x34in Kassis the Starchild and Nova, 2026 oil and acrylic on repurposed pine 36x48in

Resurrection, 2024 Acrylic on denim jacket 4XL denim jacket Beloved Ancestors, 2023-2026 Mixed media (ceramic, sourced objects, natural elements, acrylic on wood skate deck)

All works courtesy of the Artist Price available upon request

P: Isora Lithgow

Will Kasso Condry is a renowed artist and educator whose work moves through Afrofuturist and surrealist visual languages to explore African diasporic identity, ancestral memory, and the liberatory power of Black imagination.

Originally from Trenton, New Jersey, Condry began making art at a young age as a means of self-expression and survival within an under-resourced urban environment.

His work is characterized by intricate layering, vibrant color, symbolic detail, and narrative composition. Drawing from the storytelling traditions of West African griots, Condry builds expansive visual worlds in which figures, plants, animals, ancestral presences, cosmic imagery, and imagined landscapes carry stories across time.

With more than two decades of professional experience, Condry’s practice spans large-scale murals, graffiti, illustration, exhibition work, community-based public art, and arts education. He is the founder of SAGE Coalition, a former Trenton-based community arts nonprofit dedicated to revitalization and beautification, where he served as executive director for five years. Since relocating to Vermont, he has taught at Middlebury College and in K–12 schools and has served as artist-in-residence at the University of Vermont, Princeton University, and Middlebury College. Condry is the co-founder of Juniper Creative Arts, an award-winning Vermont-based family collective known for community murals and culturally rooted arts programming that uplifts belonging and visual storytelling.

Condry received the inaugural Vermont Prize in 2022, the 2025 Herb Lockwood Prize in the Arts, and a 2015 Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for Service to the Community. His previous board service includes the Vermont Arts Council Board of Trustees and the inaugural Board of Directors of Clemmons Family Farm.

WILL KASSO CONDRY JULY 10 – SEPTEMBER 12, 2026

BCA’s summer exhibitions are supported in part by the Maslow Family Foundation.

Hospitality sponsors, Sugarsnap and Lake Champlain Chocolates. Burlington City Arts is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council & the National Endowment for the Arts.

BCA’s Artist Apprenticeship Program has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement (LC00A01526) to NEIWPCC in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program

135 CHURCH STREET, BURLINGTON, VERMONT, 05401 BURLINGTONCITYARTS.ORG