{"id":203012,"date":"2026-05-27T00:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/203012\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:16:08","slug":"transcendent-musings-celebrates-pride-through-art-and-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/203012\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Transcendent Musings\u2019 celebrates Pride through art and identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In celebration of Pride Month, Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square<\/a> Philadelphia has turned its lobby and public spaces into a showcase of local creativity with \u2018Transcendent Musings<\/a>\u2019, a new art exhibition featuring works by Philadelphia artists Steven Alles and Ernesto Beckford.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

To celebrate the showcase, the hotel will host a \u2018Meet the Makers\u2019 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Artist Steven Alles is known for creating layered compositions that \u201cblend autobiography with broader social commentary.\u201d 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\u2019s \u2018Not Going Anywhere\u2019 series, a deeply personal response to ongoing political and social debates surrounding LGBTQ+ rights and visibility.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cappear suspended between identities, presenting fluid interpretations of gender, visibility, and self-expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckford\u2019s 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\u2019s work, Pride is portrayed not simply as a celebration, but “as an act of survival, liberation, and the courage to exist openly without disguise.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTranscendent Musings offers insight into each artist\u2019s 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 \u2014 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.”<\/p>\n

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\u2019s website (inliquid.app.neoncrm.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

To learn more information on \u2018Transcendent Musings\u2019 at Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square (1620 Chancellor St.), visit hyatt.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MORE: Journey Arts explores belonging in new performance \u2018TO BE HERE\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tPride Month,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia art,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t InLiquid,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t LGBTQ art,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Steven Alles,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Ernesto Beckford,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philadelphia events,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t queer artists,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t Philly Pride\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In celebration of Pride Month, Hyatt Centric Rittenhouse Square Philadelphia has turned its lobby and public spaces into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[89663,89660,59199,89661,69,89659,53163,71,70,89665,74606,89664,89662],"class_list":["post-203012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-ernesto-beckford","tag-hyatt-centric-rittenhouse-square","tag-inliquid","tag-lgbtq-art","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-art","tag-philadelphia-events","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-pride","tag-pride-month","tag-queer-artists","tag-steven-alles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}