Collection: Tsismosas: Metamorphosis

August 22 - September 13, 2026

Metamorphosis: A Pre-Cursor To “Ihalas” is a collective exhibition celebrating the creative practices and artwork of Alitha A. Alford, Cassandra Balbas, and Andrea Miralles, founders of Tsismosas Art Collective.

Tsismosas was founded to highlight and amplify women artists in an art world where women of color are too often overlooked. Metamorphosis reflects the artistic, creative, and internal journey of each artist in recent years, the evolution from chrysalis to unbounded, liberated creator. The threads that bind the Tsismosas are the same threads that caused their union as a collective—healing through the transformative power of art, the desire to nurture genuine human connection, and love of culture, mythology, and femininity.

Metamorphosis teases Tsismosas Collective’s grand 9-woman October show Ihalas: We Were Never Meant To Be Tamed. Ihalas (wild: Cebuano) is a call to live your authentic life unapologetically. It celebrates the resilience, strength, and power of women while honoring their capacity to nurture, create, lead, and inspire positive change through their phenomenal minds, courageous spirits, and adaptive, dynamic bodies. A refusal to be diminished, subdued, or “tamed.”

Through the Tsismosas’ artwork, they share their lived experiences, life lessons, activism, and stories while inviting others into meaningful, transformative dialogue. They hope these conversations create pause and reflection, cultivate empathy, and encourage collective action toward positive change in how people see themselves, one another, and the world.