(50 × 38 1/5 inches)
“Pride Within” – An Exhibition About Identity, Heritage, and the Journey to Selfhood
Espacio Garaje Lola I Madrid.
Art Curators: Sorella Acosta & Ana Suarez Gisbert
“Pride Within” explores the idea of earned pride, a pride that grows through experience, resilience, and connection. This contemporary art exhibition follows the coming-of-age story of Jerome, a young boy whose personal evolution reflects the universal passage from innocence to self-awareness.
Through a poetic sequence of portrait photographs, the series captures the quiet yet transformative moments that shape identity: early curiosity, the testing of boundaries, lessons drawn from family and community, and the inheritance of cultural wisdom passed down through generations.
Rather than portraying pride as arrogance, the works reveal it as a condition forged through dignity, perseverance, and continuity. Jerome first carries fruit before knowing its weight, steps into adolescence before realizing his own strength, and learns from observing the everyday gestures of those around him, discovering how character, culture, and pride are formed.
Each stage in this visual narrative reminds us that pride is not a gift, but a lived experience, tested, embodied, and earned. The exhibition situates Jerome within a broader cultural and intergenerational context, where the insight of elders, the protection of mothers, and the resilience of community converge to shape identity and belonging.
Here, pride becomes both personal and collective: a legacy rooted in cultural tradition and sustained through mutual respect and shared memory. By the time Jerome stands as a young man, he embodies the essence of “Pride Within”, pride that is not performed but cultivated, grounded in responsibility, heritage, and the quiet strength of self-knowledge.
His story speaks to anyone who has sought to understand who they are and where they come from, a timeless reflection on identity, pride, and the power of heritage in contemporary life.
