Make-it-POP! at InLiquid Gallery

Make-it-POP! and the Big Question of “What Counts as Pop?”

If Pop Art’s original superpower was turning the everyday into a spotlight—advertising, icons, packaging, celebrity, spectacle—then Make-it-POP at InLiquid Gallery feels like the next logical step: a show that actively tests the boundaries of the genre. On view from January 16 through February 21, 2026, this exhibition in South Kensington leans into Pop’s bold color, graphic punch, and cultural immediacy while asking a sharper question beneath the surface: what does Pop mean right now, in a city where style and commentary are practically native languages? 

The framing is smart because it understands that Pop has never been “just fun.” It’s an invitation to look at consumerism, power, and privilege with a grin that’s usually hiding teeth. Make-it-POP! pulls from InLiquid’s artist member portfolios and threads together work that ranges from nostalgic and playful to pointed and political, with the connective tissue being that Pop impulse: recognizable imagery, crisp execution, and the kind of visual confidence that reads instantly—even before you start unpacking what it’s really saying. 

Make-it-POP! and the Artists Remixing Pop’s DNA

One of the strongest moves Make-it-POP! makes is how it groups its energy. There’s a current of cultural critique running through the work, starting with Ernesto Beckford’s collages that collide advertising language with art-history signals, creating a visual mash-up that feels both seductive and confrontational at the same time.  Lori Evensen and Zach Mellman Carsey push that critique through jewelry and sculptural forms—objects associated with adornment and desire—reframing wealth and class as something you can literally wear, display, and question.  Deanna McLaughlin’s “Cartregeous” work—reimagining a shopping cart into a child seat—lands like a Pop-era gut check: familiar, slightly funny, and then suddenly heavy with implications. 

Then the show swings into nostalgia and iconography, where Pop’s “memory engine” kicks in. Jasmine Alleger’s Ring Magazine Series reaches back toward early 20th-century visual culture while channeling Muhammad Ali’s immortal line, “Float like a butterfly sting like a bee,” turning the cadence of a quote into a visual rhythm that still feels contemporary.  Matthew Borgen’s comic-book–inspired prints, Lupien LaMountain’s found media drawn from personal archives, Alex Spalding’s ’90s cartoon and comics references, and Pete Sparber’s drawings of renowned artists all work like different stations on the same dial: Pop as memory, Pop as identity, Pop as a shared language that changes depending on who’s speaking it. 

And just when you think Pop is settling into pure pleasure, the show reminds you—again—that the personal is political. John Y. Wind’s message pins function like wearable calls-to-action, built from gems, buttons, and the language of jewelry-making, but aimed squarely at civic urgency.  Wendee Yudis interrogates gender and power by pushing pop icons through shifting contexts and vivid color, proving how quickly “harmless” imagery can become loaded once you change the frame.  Carlotta Schiavio, known as YaTii Talisman, expands the scale with large, colorful paintings carrying messages of peace and climate awareness—work that feels designed not only to be seen, but to be felt across the room.   

Make-it-POP! is Pop with the volume turned up on what it was always best at: making the world look bright enough that you’re willing to stare at it longer.

Make-it-POP! runs January 16 to February 21, 2026, at InLiquid Gallery. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. An opening reception will be hosted on February 12 from 6 to 9 p.m.