Expressions of Love – The Female Gaze
Expressions of Love – The Female Gaze
An Online Virtual Art Exhibit
Presented by AfroSolo Theatre Company
Featuring the works of:
Anna W. Edwards & Karen Seneferu
Curated by:
Peter Fitzsimmons
About the Exhibit
Expressions of Love – The Female Gaze is a virtual exhibition exploring love, identity, memory, resilience, spirituality, and emotional truth through the perspectives of women artists. Through abstract expression, mixed media, and layered visual storytelling, the exhibit invites viewers into a reflective experience where love is seen not as weakness, but as power.
This exhibition redefines the gaze — centering women not as subjects to be observed, but as creators of meaning and narrative.
Exhibit Duration
Through June 30, 2026
FEATURED ARTISTS
Anna W. Edwards
Anna W. Edwards lives and works in San Leandro, CA. She grew up in New York City and lived on Sugar Hill, a small enclave north of Harlem. After moving to California, Anna began painting and studied with Takeshi Nakayoshi. Her work in acrylic, mixed media, and collage has been influenced by Ed Clark, Richard Diebenkorn, Bob Rauschenberg, and Antoni Tapies.
“My paintings and body of work are a contemplation and reflection on Light, whether the blush of sunlight on dissimilar landscapes or the majestic nature of wildfire, which depicts the color, power, chaos, serenity, and devastation. While many of my paintings draw on personal stories, they are also universal. My aim is to produce paintings that are inspiring and spiritual. I have begun to see each person and event as a link in the chain for my continued growth.”
Karen Seneferu
Space dictates meaning. What enters that space is dictated to by the meaning of the space or can change the meaning of the space.
CURATOR
Peter Fitzsimmons
Pete “The Cat” Fitzsimmons is a native San Franciscan and the Founding Executive Director of the Jazz Heritage Center, once located in San Francisco’s Fillmore District. At the JHC, he managed the Lush Life Art Gallery, a celebration of San Francisco’s Jazz and Artistic Legacy. He also curated multiple world-class exhibits in the Koret Heritage Lobby located next door in the entryway to Yoshi’s restaurant and nightclub. Fitzsimmons is AfroSolo Theatre Company’s Visual Arts Curator & Consultant. Last season, he curated the AfroSolo Festival’s “Malik Seneferu – A Retrospective” at the African American Center at the San Francisco Main Library. At AfroSolo and the Commonwealth Club’s presentation of “Standing Tall” – A Celebration of Black Resilience, he was a featured performer narrating his PowerPoint presentation exploring the “History of Jazz in San Francisco” starting in the Barbary Coast and eventually proliferating in SF’s Fillmore District, also known as Harlem of the West. In pursuit of his professional acting career, he has earned many notable credits, as seen on his IMDb listing. He recently performed on stage, in Walking Cinema’s immersive theater experience: “The Fillmore Eclipse” and for the Oakland Public Theater / PlayGround Innovator Incubator presentation of “Four Seasons Political Landscape”, featuring the premiere production of “Judicial Process.” He continues to perform at UCSF, training young medical students, and last, but not least, he values the opportunity to do on-camera acting work at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, working with up-and-coming student directors, writers, and producers.
Curatorial Statement
Expressions of Love – The Female Gaze Curated by Peter Fitzsimmons Expressions of Love – The Female Gaze invites viewers into an intimate and expansive meditation on love as seen, interpreted, and authored by women artists. In a culture that has historically framed women as subjects of observation rather than creators of meaning, this exhibition repositions the gaze — shifting it inward, outward, and beyond. Featuring the works of Anna Edwards and Karen Seneferu, this virtual exhibition explores love not as sentimentality but as power. Love appears here as memory, longing, protection, sensuality, spiritual inheritance, vulnerability, and resilience. It is both personal and political. It is quiet and declarative. It is embodied. The “female gaze” in this exhibition is not simply about who is looking — it is about who defines. These artists shape visual narratives that center on emotional truth and interior experience. Their works resist flattening or spectacle. Instead, they offer layered compositions that ask us to reconsider intimacy, identity, and perception through a lens of agency. Within AfroSolo’s larger artistic legacy — one rooted in amplifying voices from the African diaspora — this exhibition extends that mission into the visual arts space. It asserts that visual storytelling, like theater and spoken word, can function as testimony. It can bear witness to lived experience. It can reframe how we see ourselves and one another. By presenting this exhibition virtually, AfroSolo expands accessibility while also acknowledging the digital age as a contemporary gallery space — one where love, representation, and self-definition can travel beyond physical walls. Expressions of Love – The Female Gaze is an offering. It invites viewers not simply to look, but to reflect. To consider how love has shaped their own vision. And to recognize the power of women artists to redefine what love looks like when it is no longer observed — but authored.