In celebration of Pride Month, Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia has turned its lobby and public spaces into a showcase of local creativity with ‘Transcendent Musings’, a new art exhibition featuring works by Philadelphia artists Steven Alles and Ernesto Beckford.

Curated by InLiquid, the exhibit is currently on display and will continue through June 28, focusing on themes of identity, resilience, and self-expression.

Visitors can expect bright color palettes, layered imagery, and personal storytelling from both artists that examine ideas of memory, transformation, and queer visibility. Organizers say the collection is designed to encourage conversation and connection while celebrating the diversity of lived experiences within the LGBTQ+ community.

To celebrate the showcase, the hotel will host a ‘Meet the Makers’ opening reception on Thursday, June 4, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The free public event will allow attendees to meet the featured creatives, learn more about their processes, and view the collection firsthand in an intimate setting. Hotel officials describe the evening as both a celebration of Pride Month and an opportunity to strengthen ties between the hospitality and arts communities in Philadelphia.

Artist Steven Alles is known for creating layered compositions that “blend autobiography with broader social commentary.” With a creative background in both fine art and public health, Alles uses texture and symbolism to explore different themes. Central to the exhibition is Alles’s ‘Not Going Anywhere’ series, a deeply personal response to ongoing political and social debates surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.

Fellow featured artist Ernesto Beckford approaches similar ideas through mixed media and collage-based portraiture. Originally from Buenos Aires and largely self-taught, Beckford combines hand-cut paper collages, watercolor, and found imagery to create archival pigment prints. His figures often “appear suspended between identities, presenting fluid interpretations of gender, visibility, and self-expression.”

Beckford’s work draws inspiration from portraiture, mythology, cinema, and fashion. Across the collection, bodies are shown in states of transformation (aka masked, softened, adorned, or defiantly exposed) with saturated colors. In Beckford’s work, Pride is portrayed not simply as a celebration, but “as an act of survival, liberation, and the courage to exist openly without disguise.”

“Transcendent Musings offers insight into each artist’s journey of self-actualization,” says InLiquid’s Executive Director, Rachel Zimmerman. “Alles and Beckford came of age in different cultural settings, and now make artwork through different methods and styles — but when you see their artwork together, you find eye-opening similarities between their experiences, inspirations, and the messages in their work, rooted in their use of color and explorations of portraiture.”

Guests attending the opening reception on Thursday, June 4, will have the opportunity to explore the exhibition while enjoying complimentary light bites courtesy of Patchwork Restaurant, along with pay-as-you-go craft cocktails from the adjacent bar. To attend the opening reception, anyone can RSVP through InLiquid’s website (inliquid.app.neoncrm.com)

To learn more information on ‘Transcendent Musings’ at Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square (1620 Chancellor St.), visit hyatt.com.

MORE: Journey Arts explores belonging in new performance ‘TO BE HERE’

Keywords

Pride Month,

Philadelphia art,

Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square,

InLiquid,

LGBTQ art,

Steven Alles,

Ernesto Beckford,

Philadelphia events,

queer artists,

Philly Pride