Highline Heritage Museum

What: Nepantla: Painting the Space in-Between

Onview from: April 3rd – July 2nd 2026

Artist Reception: May 1st 2026 5-6:30 PM

Location: Highline Heritage Museum 819 SW 152nd St. Burien, WA 98166

Nepantla is a Nahuatl (Aztec language) term describing “being in the middle” or “the space in the middle.” Popularized by Chicana writer and scholar Gloria Anzaldúa, the concept often references endangered communities, cultures, and genders who, due to colonialism, marginalization, or historical trauma, develop resistance strategies for survival. Nepantla becomes an alternative space in which to live, heal, function, and create.

In Nepantla: Painting the Space In-Between, Jake Prendez positions his painting as both aesthetic practice and decolonial intervention. Born in San Jacinto/Hemet, Jake grew up going back and forth from California and Washington. He received a Bachelors from UW in American Ethnic Studies and a Masters in Chicana/o Studies from California State University, Northridge. Prendez navigates multiple cultural, geographic, and intellectual terrains. His work reflects this lived in-betweenness, synthesizing Indigenous iconography, social realism, portraiture, and pop cultural references into a visual language grounded in Chicana/o experience

Prendez’s paintings operate as acts of cultural affirmation and resistance. They challenge erasure while centering visibility; they honor ancestral memory while engaging contemporary social justice struggles. Through bold color, symbolic imagery, and figurative representation, he constructs visual spaces where marginalized identities are neither peripheral nor endangered, but sovereign and self-defined.

As co-director of the Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery in Seattle, along with his wife Judy Avitia-Gonzalez, Prendez extends this philosophy beyond the canvas, cultivating community-based platforms rooted in Chicana/o arts traditions. The exhibition frames Nepantla not as a condition of fragmentation, but as a generative site of transformation—where survival evolves into empowerment, and the in-between becomes a locus of cultural production, collective healing, and creation.

Exhibits are quarterly.

January-March: Anna Sullivan (February 6th 2026 5-6:30 PM

Exhibits are quarterly.

January-March: Ron Hammond (Reception Jan 10 from 5:00-630 PM

April-June: Trisha Gilmore (Reception April 4 from 5:00-6:30 PM

July-September: John Woodruff (Reception July 11 from 5:00-6:30 PM

October-December: Rachel Bender (Reception October 3 from 5:00-6:30 PM

Exhibits went from bi-monthly to quarterly in 2024.

January-March: Ken DeRoux (Reception January 5 from 5-7 PM)

April-June: Essa Baird (Reception April 5 from 5-7 PM)

July-September: Kelly Lyles (Reception July 12 from 6-7:30 PM)

October-December: Garreth Schuh (Reception October 4 from 6-7:30 PM)

Exhibits were bi-monthly in 2023.

January/February: Naomi Benson (Reception January 6) with online video

March/April: Danny Mansmith (Reception March 3)

May/June: Maureen Hoffman (Reception May 5)

July/August: Daniel Lyons (Reception July 7)

September/October: Laura Bermes (Reception Sept. 1)

November/December: Brandi Reyna (Reception: November 3)

Exhibits were bi-monthly in 2022.

January/February: Antonija Hasanbegovic (Reception February 4 with online video

March/April: Margery Ellsworth (Reception March 4) with online video

May/June: Kelly Lyles (Reception May 6) with online video

July/August: Esther Loopstra (Reception July 1)

September/October: Andrew Woodcock (Reception September 2)

November/December:  EcoThrive – Denise Henrikson & Susan Russell (Reception November 4)

Exhibits were bi-monthly and included an online video.

March/April: Reinhardt Hollstein, in person solo gallery show at the Museum with online video

May/June: Lezlie Jane online show with online video

July/August: Helena Rogers in-person solo gallery show at the Museum with online video.

September/October: Jody Romero in-person solo gallery show at the Museum with online video.

November/December: Arnulfo Ramirez in-person solo gallery show at the Museum with online video.

In January 2020, Burien Arts began hosting bi-monthly art exhibits at the Museum, with opening receptions on the First Friday to coordinate with the First Friday Art Walk (when in operation). Due to the pandemic, our exhibits April-September were online only.

January: Shelia Coppola, in-person exhibit

February-March: Alina Hakim, in-person exhibit

April-May: Rebecca Sayre, virtual gallery show due to pandemic

June-July: Doug Early, virtual gallery show due to pandemic

August: Diane Sarr, virtual gallery show due to pandemic

September: Amaranta Sandys & others, virtual gallery show due to pandemic

November/December: Rebecca Sayre, in person exhibit with online video

Burien Arts has exhibited art around town in several other venues:

• Lobby of Burien City Hall, 400 SW 152nd Street, Burien
• Burien Community Center, 14700 6th Avenue SW, Burien
• Burien Actors Theatre at the Annex, Annex Park, 14549 4th Avenue SW, Burien, when the Theatre operated in that location. (The Annex has since been demolished.)

Burien Arts loves to feature established artists and emerging artists alike, including the work of students.

For information on earlier exhibit venues, see History on the About Us page.