Art is Keeping Us Alive

Art Is Keeping Us Alive brought together an extraordinary collection of donated artwork from artists who share a common conviction: that independent arts spaces matter, artists deserve places to be seen, and creative communities are worth investing in.

As Not Shockboxx’s first major fundraising exhibition as a nonprofit gallery, every work in the exhibition was donated by the participating artists, making each purchase an act of collecting and sustaining. One hundred percent of artwork sales directly supported the gallery’s nonprofit mission, helping fund future exhibitions, artist opportunities, and community programming while preserving an accessible, artist-centered space in Hermosa Beach.

The exhibition served as both a celebration and a reminder. Art has the power to challenge, comfort, disrupt, provoke, document, heal, and connect. But none of that happens without artists willing to create it, spaces willing to exhibit it, and communities willing to champion it.

Featuring an eclectic range of painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, textile work, printmaking, ceramics, and installation, Art Is Keeping Us Alive reflected the diversity of voices that have become the foundation of Not Shockboxx. Established artists exhibited alongside emerging makers. Different mediums, backgrounds, and perspectives collided on the walls to form a portrait of a creative community that is generous, resilient, and unapologetically alive.

Rather than closing with a traditional reception, the exhibition concluded with a community celebration that welcomed artists, collectors, supporters, volunteers, and neighbors to recognize the people who made the gallery’s first year as a nonprofit possible. It wasn’t simply the end of an exhibition. It was a reminder that galleries don’t survive because buildings exist. They survive because communities choose to keep showing up.

The title says it all.

For many of us, art isn’t a luxury. It’s how we process the world. It’s how we find one another. It’s how we imagine something better.

Art is keeping us alive.