Behind the Curtain: Vulnerabilities Exposed brings together the work of recipients from CENTER’s annual awards and grants, offering a profound reflection on the urgent social, political, and environmental challenges shaping our world today. The exhibition spans deeply personal narratives and global crises, engaging with issues such as school violence, immigration detention, and the fragility of our planet’s ecosystems.
Among the featured projects, Chloé.A’s Yellow Tiger on Blue Background examines the complex process of coming of age in Taiwan, a nation marked by both natural and political turbulence. Following the devastating earthquake of April 2024 and its countless aftershocks, the photographer turns her lens toward a generation navigating instability and identity under geopolitical pressure. Through quiet portraits and nuanced storytelling, she captures how young Taiwanese reconcile personal dreams with the shifting ground of national belonging.
Greg Constantine’s Seven Doors: An American Gulag confronts the human cost of the U.S. immigration detention system, where more than 46,000 people are held daily across an expanding network of facilities. After seven years of research and travel through nine countries, Constantine builds a visual and auditory record of these places—combining panoramic photographs, oral testimonies, and data to reveal the psychological and social toll of mass detention. His work invites viewers to step inside an unseen world of endurance and injustice, amplifying the voices of those too often silenced.
Alongside these powerful narratives, projects by Mitsu Maeda, Debmalya Ray Choudhuri, Sarah Sudhoff, and Alex Welsh extend the exhibition’s reach, from explorations of memory and trauma to reflections on landscape and loss. Together, they unveil the vulnerabilities that lie just beyond the surface of modern life—reminding us that art remains one of the most vital means of witnessing and understanding the human condition.
Image: “Untitled” from the series Yellow tiger on blue background © Chloé.A, 2025 Project Development Grant



