She, Archivist | Lily Colman Solo Show
Opening Reception - Wed. March, 4 2026, 5:00-8:00pm | Artist Talk 5:30-6:30pm |
The show will be available to view March, 2 - April, 2 2026 | 📍 Mercer County Community College, JKC Gallery, Trenton Hall |137 North Broad St., Trenton, NJ 08608
Reception + Livestreamed Talk (5:30-6:30 @realphotoshow on YouTube)
The JKC Gallery is thrilled to share the work of film-based photographer and Mercer Adjunct Professor, Lily Colman.
She, Archivist is a project about womanhood, inheritance, and specifically how certain items and feelings are passed down between generations of women. The focus is on matrilineal inheritance through perceived rituals in Judaism, and the questioning of certain beliefs passed down.
Using traditional film-based and alternative photographic processes and utilizing collage with domestic materials, Colman attempts to reconstruct her identity through her family’s matrimonial history as well as her own experience with an abusive marriage and subsequent divorce.
Lily Madeleine Colman is a film-based photographer and educator from Philadelphia, PA. She makes work about womanhood, inheritance, and specifically how certain items and feelings are passed down between generations of women.
Lily was featured in the 2021 International Juried Exhibition at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ, where she was awarded First Prize and a Solo Exhibition. Her solo exhibition, The Knots on the Underside of the Carpet, ran from April 22 – June 4, 2022, at the CCA.
Lily graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with her MFA in 2020, as well as a Certificate in Collegiate Teaching in Art and Design. She has always loved photography, education, and photo books, and wanted to make them accessible to everyone.
In 2025 Lily took on the initiative to start her own publishing non-profit, FRAME/SEQUENCE, through fiscal sponsorship with CultureWorks of Philadelphia. FRAME/SEQUENCE is a quarterly print periodical spotlighting underrepresented and emerging photographers, writers, artists, and communities across Philadelphia and Greater Pennsylvania — connecting art, story, and place in a uniquely intimate and enduring form.
Lily also currently works as an adjunct photography professor at Mercer County Community College, Rowan University, and Rowan College at Burlington County. She has also taught at The College of New Jersey, and Union County Community College, all located in New Jersey.