May 9 - June 13, 2026
227 E 24 Street, 10010, New York, NYOpening reception and book signing, Saturday, May 9, 6-8 pm
New York, NY. A Poor Imitation of Death by Ara Oshagan is a collaborative and multidisciplinary project about youth in the California prison system. Through photography, collage, poetry, personal testimony, installation, and the voices and handwriting of the youth themselves, photographer Ara Oshagan creates deeply moving and personal portraits of Duc, Liz, Anait, Peter, Sandra, Efrain, and Myra—all youth who enter the justice system as juveniles but are tried as adults and sent to adult prisons with severe sentences. Their stories are layered and complex: full of despair, raw emotion, and injustice, but also of incredible inner strength and hope.
A Poor Imitation of Death exhibition is curated by ModA Curations, and the book is published by Daylight Books, NY.
Ara Oshaganis a diasporic multi-disciplinary artist and curator whose practice explores collective and personal histories of dispossession, legacies of violence, identity, decolonization, and (un)imagined futures. Oshagan works in photography, film, collage, installation, book arts, public art, and monuments, and has published four books of photography. He has had solo exhibitions and public art installations in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Armenia, Morocco, and South Korea. His work has been featured on NPR, LA Times, Hyperallergic, Mother Jones, Art Papers, among others. He has been designated as a “100 Leading Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy Magazine in DC and a “Cultural Trailblazer” by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Oshagan is an Artist-in-Residence at the 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica and curator at the City of Glendale ReflectSpace Gallery.
About ModA Curations
ModA Curations is a creative organization bridging contemporary art and sociocultural anthropology. Functioning as a sub-entity of Modern Anthropology (ModA) Studios, LLC, ModA Curations operates virtually with in-person, bi-annual exhibitions, showing spring and fall in New York City and Los Angeles, respectively. ModA Studios was founded in the Fall of 2023 by Executive Director and Anthropologist Georgian “George” Fan.
ModA Contact
George Fan, Executive Director
484.892.7011
george.fan@moda-studio.com
Curatorial Program
Sia Fang, Director of Curations and Outreach
sia.fang@moda-studio.com