The 43-work exhibition at SUNY Fredonia features paintings, drawings, prints, and videos examining the policies, histories, and human realities surrounding global migration.
On September 8, 2026, Professors Emeriti Susanne Slavick and Andrew Ellis Johnson opened “for nothing is fixed,” a joint exhibition at SUNY Fredonia’s Marion Art Gallery in the Rockefeller Arts Center, on view through November 20. Through multidisciplinary works, the show examines global immigration, human rights abuses, and social justice, where Slavick and Johnson confront the contradictory fears, ignored histories, and punitive policies surrounding refugees and immigrants. “’for nothing is fixed’ is a condensed lament for a state of brokenness, an expectant charge to make things right or whole,” the artists wrote. “Movement, impermanence, and change are all inherent to migration and what it encompasses.”
Slavick’s featured works include her Ghost Ships series of archival prints, which weave ancient maritime myths into contemporary refugee journeys, alongside her Retraction paintings and Red Carpets digital photographs, which critique the modern revocation of welcoming ideals symbolized by the Statue of Liberty. Johnson’s works include In Broad Daylight, a collage series probing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics, and Lifeguard (Gregory Wayne Abbott), an ink drawing responding to deterrent measures along the Rio Grande. Accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by award-winning British-Somali journalist Ismail Einashe, the exhibition also included visiting artist lectures delivered by Slavick and Johnson on campus in September and October.
Image: Susanne Slavick, Red Carpet II, 2026, Archival digital print, 10 x 14 inches