“A Good Place to Hide” at Hotel Lafayette
This November, artist Elizabeth Waggett will be featured in A Good Place to Hide, a monthlong exhibition curated by Mashonda Tifrere for Art Genesis. Presented within the historic bungalow at Hotel Lafayette in San Diego, the exhibition transforms the four-bedroom space into an immersive environment where art, design and stillness converge.
Curated by Tifrere, the exhibition reflects her belief that art can offer refuge amid the intensity of contemporary life. The bungalow becomes a place to slow down, notice subtle details and reconnect with the quiet parts of oneself. This context aligns naturally with Waggett’s practice, which often explores tenderness, memory and the emotional resonance embedded in materials.
Waggett’s work sits alongside a global roster of artists selected for the exhibition, each contributing pieces that consider the relationship between the environment and human experience. Through painting, photography and sculpture, the exhibition brings together practices linked by a shared sensitivity to texture, presence and atmosphere. The emphasis is not on spectacle but on intimacy, subtlety and the calm that emerges when viewers are encouraged to pause.
The setting itself plays a significant role. Built in the mid-twentieth century, the bungalow’s intimate rooms and outdoor expanses create an environment that feels both domestic and contemplative. Guests can move from space to space, encountering works in a way that mirrors living with art in a home rather than viewing it in a traditional gallery. This format deepens the experience of Waggett’s paintings, which often carry traces of domestic craft and personal history through layered metals, textile impressions and warm, atmospheric surfaces.
Art Genesis, founded by Mashonda Tifrere, continues its mission to support artists by fostering meaningful connections between art and community. With eighteen participating creators at varied career stages, the exhibition centres diverse voices and gives each artist’s work space to be fully experienced. Proceeds from select works support artist residencies and programming, furthering the organisation’s commitment to long-term sustainability for creative practices.
For Waggett, being part of A Good Place to Hide provides a resonant context for her work. The exhibition’s emphasis on refuge, reflection and the restorative qualities of art mirrors the emotional grounding she seeks to create within her own paintings. Within the bungalow’s softened light and layered history, her work becomes part of a larger dialogue about the role of art in offering clarity, comfort and a moment of return.
The exhibition features works by Colm Dillane, Denja Harris, Dave Eassa, Israel McCloud, Jerome Lagarrique, Josh Herman, Julia Greyson, Lacey McKinney, Megan Lewis, Monica Canilao, Nikko Muller, Reni Soare, Rugiyatou YLav Jallow, Steven Hill, Steven Kirby, Swoon and Yulia Bas, alongside Waggett’s contribution. Together, the artists explore the relationship between environment and experience through painting, photography and sculpture. Their works share a sensitivity to presence, materiality and the spaces where the emotional and the everyday meet.
