Exhibits

Exhibits at TCPL

Aging Ithacans
May-August 2025
Avenue of the Friends

Portraits, storytelling, vulnerability, and the passage of time highlight this new exhibit from Yamilka Portorreal that combines hand drawn portraits of Ithacans with stories of their lives collected through one-on-one interviews and conversations.

A portrait of a person in a green shirt, with a paper filled with unreadable text to the right of the portrait
Artist's Statement

It makes me uneasy to think about the inevitable passage of time, the finiteness of life, and our existence being dependent upon the vessel that allows us to exist: our bodies. Aging Ithacans is my tool to confront this angst by learning from elders.

Aging Ithacans is an ethnographic project highlighting the aging experiences of elders in Tompkins County. It includes the interviews and portraits of ten seniors, centering on the joy, pain, and wisdom of getting older. It amplifies the experiences of diverse individuals, particularly in race, ethnicity, religion, age, and sexuality. The inception of this project took root in a conversation I had with my grandmother in the Dominican Republic regarding the social and technological changes that occurred during her lifetime and my desire to connect with local seniors. 

An image along the Avenue of the Friends with a bench in the foreground, and the portraits and stories that accompany them in the background

To maximize accessibility, there was no age or residency requirement for participating seniors, and it was self-selecting. During the creation of each interview, elders were given a choice to select whether they wanted to have their interview voice recorded and transcribed or completed by hand/digitally. Each interview was transcribed verbatim with the intent to fully capture the personality of each participant. In addition, most portraits were conducted on-site and finished at home or from references if limited by time. Portraits were done on 12x10 toned paper using colored pencils, and seniors are welcome to keep their portraits after the exhibition is concluded.

A close up image of text on a piece of paper. Most of the words are out of focus. The ones that are in focus read "What would you like me to know about you? I tried my best. My four kids are the most important. (out of focus words) but I tried. I tried to be a good person. I appreciate life. (out of focus) want to leave a better place for my grandchildren and everybody (text cuts off)

This project was conducted in partnership with McGraw House (a senior independent living facility) and Lifelong (a community center for seniors). This program is made possible in full with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant program from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the office of the Governor and NYS Legislature, administered by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County. Additional thanks to Annie Perry, Kate Collins, Karen Koyanagi, Tompkins County Public Library, and all participating seniors for their support and trust in making this project possible. Thank you!

About the Artist
A dual image of Yamilka Portorreal with a slightly transparent vision of them overlaid over a separate image of them

Yamilka Portorreal (she/they) is a multimedia artist that is currently based in Ithaca, NY. They use art as a vehicle to rekindle their childhood by capturing elements of their fragmented upbringing. Their quiet but critical observance of the world, and incessant love for artmaking synthesize in fine art and photography. Through photography, Yamilka explores themes of nostalgia, family, poverty, violence, gentrification, resilience, beauty, abandonment, and reclamation. In addition, their fine art explores the beauty and intricacies  of everyday life through figure drawings, portraits, doodles, and still lives.