Gisela McDaniel, Måmes, 2021, Oil on canvas, found object, shells from subject-collaborator, sound, 50 3/4 x 45 x 6 in., Gift of the Kulick family
Come Talk To Me
Curated by Robin K. Williams, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art
September 2025 — Spring 2026
Two Artists Exploring Identity Through Sharing Stories
This intimate two-work exhibition brings together paintings by Hernan Bas and Gisela McDaniel—two celebrated contemporary artists who explore queer identity, storytelling, and the power of conversation.
In “A Blue Predicament,” Bas reimagines the lives of the “bright young things,” a group of queer artists and socialites in 1920s London, whose bold openness about homosexuality intrigued him. Next to Bas’s painting of an imagined past, Gisela McDaniel offers “Måmes,” a vibrant portrait of her friend and fellow artist Dan Taulapapa McMullin—a Samoan poet, filmmaker, and painter whose work focuses on queer Pacific Islander identity and cultural memory.
Combining paint, shells offered by McMullin, and sound, McDaniel’s portrait is rooted in the tradition of “talking story,” a personal exchange of gifts, conversation, and shared heritage. Through sound, color, and gesture, Come Talk to Me invites visitors into an ongoing exchange—between artists, histories, and viewers—and shows the power of shared stories to build empathy across time and place.
Works in this installation
Hernan Bas, A Blue Predicament, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 40.1 in.
Gisela McDaniel, Måmes, 2021, Oil on canvas, found object, shells from subject-collaborator, sound, 50 3/4 x 45 x 6 in., Gift of the Kulick family
Talking Story
Artist Gisela McDaniel created this oral history as part of her multimedia work Måmes featured in this exhibition. Weaving together memories of childhood, cultural traditions, and generational trauma, McDaniel’s accompanying track offers an intimate look at the lasting impact of colonization, the strength of Chamorro identity, and the healing power of ancestral knowledge.
[00:00:00.00] Day and about their respect for like elders, like
[00:00:05.00] [static]
[00:00:07.00] interesting, I mean, to me, it was normal.
[00:00:12.00] I had very bright, beautiful times of my childhood.
[00:00:21.00] You know, I realized but I do know they were very
[00:00:26.00] beautiful times in my childhood.
[00:00:29.00] I had dark times in my childhood. And, uh...
[00:00:37.00] I do know one thing is I never wanted to grow up.
[00:00:40.00] Growing up tomorrow has shaped me in every single way.
[00:00:44.00] I hated the idea of growing up
[00:00:46.00] and I think partly that was because even as a child
[00:00:51.30] I had an idealization of what my childhood was.
[00:00:55.40] [sound of water dripping]
[00:01:00.00] I grew up in the States, [overtalking] so I didn't grow up around a lot of Chamorro's that were outside of my family, but
[00:01:10.00] the my connection to my culture is what has gotten me through
[00:01:19.00] hard times, and I've learned so much about how to
[00:01:23.00] about community and interdependence and just how to conduct myself in the world. Because of our culture, I grew up with my grandmother, around
[00:01:36.00] my aunt, my father's sisters. I have a big family, and you know, we were taught to always
[00:01:42.00] [speaker shift] the knowledge that is being
[00:01:49.00] [original speaker] lost, always respect your elders and that the the young, the the older ones
[00:01:57.00] always look after the younger ones, even like as children. You know, the older kids, big kids always help the younger kids
[00:02:00.00] [far away speakers, inaudible]
[00:02:07.00] [new speaker] from the gepele tribe of Guam.
[00:02:12.00] [original speaker] There's a story about my dad
