At a moment when democratic institutions are weakening worldwide, Lines of Return examines how artists in diaspora confront this crisis through image, humor, and collective pedagogy. According to a 2024 Democracy Without Borders report, 72 percent of the world’s population now lives under autocratic rule, marking the first decade in which authoritarian regimes outnumber democracies. Against this global backdrop, in this exhibition three binational and bicultural artists—Arzu Arda Kosar, Carlos A. Etcheverry, and Juan Herrera—propose art as civic resistance and as an educational practice. Their works cross borders of language, media, and belonging, insisting that democracy must be re-imagined daily through acts of learning, translation, and care. Arzu Arda Kosar, a Turkish-American artist known for socially engaged installations, creates participatory works that weave language, touch, and memory to counter isolation. Carlos A. Etcheverry, a Venezuelan-American illustrator and comic artist, expands the frame of graphic narrative into political satire, using absurdist humor to expose propaganda and power. Juan Herrera, a Venezuelan-American photographer, writer, and educator, contributes lens-based works and text that link bilingual education and queer tenderness to the labor of democracy. Together, they present diaspora as method—a lens for understanding how displacement produces not fragmentation but multiplicity. As Edward Said wrote in Reflections on Exile, “Most people are principally aware of one culture, one setting, one home; exiles are aware of at least two, and this plurality of vision gives rise to an awareness of simultaneous dimensions.”
This exhibition embraces that “plurality of vision” as a pedagogical and political stance: bilingual and bicultural experiences become creative infrastructures through which democracy, humor, visual art, and memory are rebuilt. In Lines of Return, protest takes the form of proximity. Kosar’s interventions, Etcheverry’s hand-drawn allegories, and Herrera’s photographic collages and prints map how artists sustain dialogue across censorship, exile, and translation. Through humor, intimacy, and bilingual lens, the exhibition proposes a view of democracy as both part of the material of art, and a constant translation through the means of their visual work. About the Artists Arzu Arda Kosar (B.A. in Studio Art and Art History, University of Pittsburgh; M.F.A. in New Genres, University of Southern California) is a Turkish-American artist and community facilitator whose practice spans socially engaged and collaborative projects, including Yarn Bombing LA and exhibitions at 18th Street Arts Center. Her work investigates collective authorship, language, and participation in public space. Carlos A. Etcheverry (B.F.A. in Visual Communication, Instituto de Diseño Neumann, Caracas) is a Venezuelan-American illustrator, comic artist, and storyboarder, creator of Borlo Comix. His work, featured in L.A. Taco and VoyageLA, merges underground comix aesthetics with political critique, humor, and narrative experimentation. Juan Herrera (B.A. in Literature, Universidad Central de Venezuela; M.A. in Spanish, University of Iowa; M.A. in Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; M.F.A. in Photography and Media, California Institute of the Arts) is a Venezuelan-American artist and educator based in Los Angeles. His lens-based and performative practice explores visibility, power, and emotional intimacy through bilingual and bicultural frameworks grounded in education and community engagement. Venue: 
Cámara Obscura Studio at The Brewery Artwalk, Los Angeles. Opening during The Brewery Artwalk: Sat–Sun, Oct 25–26, 2025, 10am–6pm.
Exhibition run: through Nov 16, 2025.
Venue: The Brewery Artwalk, Los Angeles (Cámara Obscura Studio). 
Themes include community-led action, counter-narratives to authoritarianism, and intimate testimony from exile.