Mental Mapping explores how internal networks, such as memory, perception, and emotion, shape the way we experience and navigate the world. This exhibition delves into the intersections of neuroscience, creativity, and visual storytelling.

Reception: April 24, 2025, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artist Talk: June 10, 2025, 6-8 PM

Location: The Somerville Armory
191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA

Admission is free.

A piece from my Mental Mapping project, Jessica TranVo, was selected for inclusion in the juried exhibition {a}temporal, presented by the Cambridge Art Association at the Kathryn Schultz Gallery.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, showcased his Holga photography at the 10th Annual Somerville Toy Camera Festival at the Nave Gallery from September 9 to October 7, 2023. Using the iconic low-tech Holga camera, Sariñana’s work explores themes of memory and perception, embracing the imperfections and unpredictability of toy camera photography.

Curated by award-winning photographer Joshua Sariñana, Through These Realities is a powerful photography and poetry exhibition that challenges the dominant narratives perpetuated by mass media. This collaborative project brings together the voices and visions of six photographers of color—Adam Cordelle, Andrew Harris, Kenia Arbaiza, Wandy Pascoal, Xudong Liu, and Paul Sayed—paired with the evocative words of six poets of color—Kesper Wang, Isabella De Palo Garcia Perez, Durane West, Alysia Williams, Mayank Chugh, and Cesar Sanchez Beras.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD ’11, combines his neuroscience background with art and storytelling to foster public engagement with science and elevate underrepresented voices. As highlighted in his MIT News alumni profile, Sariñana’s work focuses on creating connections between science and the public through interdisciplinary projects.

Joshua Sariñana, PhD, serves as the curator of Through These Realities, a Somerville Arts Council-supported project that pairs poets and photographers of color to explore themes of racial and social justice through art. Inspired by a James Baldwin quote critiquing the American media’s role in distorting reality, the project challenges mainstream narratives by empowering people of color to share their perspectives. Poets and photographers collaborated to create visual works influenced by poetry to validate the experiences of communities of color and highlight their everyday realities.

From December 6, 2021, to February 28, 2022, The Poetry of Science was exhibited at MIT’s Rotch Gallery, presenting a dynamic blend of poetry and photography that highlights the experiences and contributions of scientists of color. Directed by Joshua Sariñana, PhD, this multimedia project merges art and science to challenge traditional narratives and foster positive associations between communities of color and the sciences. Each work pairs portraits of scientists, visually embedded into natural landscapes, with poetry that explores their research, motivations, and lives.

In Image of Structure, Joshua Sariñana reimagines the iconic Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stripped of its vivid colors, the architectural marvel is rendered in monochrome, transformed into a surreal, graphic space. The series was on exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography in 2020. Learn More»

Joshua Sariñana’s work was featured in Portrait of America, a group exhibition at Fabrik Projects in Los Angeles, showcasing the winners of the 2018 Portrait of America contest. The exhibition, running from November 23 to December 14, 2019, examined the evolving identity of the United States through photography, offering diverse perspectives on what it means to be American.

My photographic series Prosopagnosia was selected for inclusion in the Grand Annual Exhibition of Portraits at the Altes Pumpenhaus in Dresden, Germany, and as part of the Hellerau Photography Award. This group exhibition featured 34 international artists.

Joshua Sariñana’s architectural photography series, Image of Structure, was featured in First Look 2019, a five-person exhibition at Panopticon Gallery. Running from January 4 to March 4, 2019, the show explored how individual photographs contribute to a broader narrative when presented as a cohesive portfolio. Curated by Kat Kiernan, the exhibition emphasized the complexity and depth that comes from viewing photography as an interconnected body of work.

Joshua Sariñana’s Image of Structure was selected for the prestigious Latin American Fotografía awards, a juried competition celebrating outstanding photography and illustration from or focused on Latin America. The awarded photograph was exhibited at Photoville in Brooklyn from September 20–24, 2018, as part of an international showcase of visual storytelling.

Joshua Sariñana’s portrait from his series Prosopagnosia was selected for the 5th annual Analogue Portrait Project, an exhibition hosted by Smashbox Studios as part of Month of Photography Los Angeles. The show, which ran in Culver City, CA, featured 25 juried film-based portraits from both emerging and established photographers, evaluated by a panel including Ron Haviv (VII Photo Agency), Kate Kuo (Los Angeles Times), and MaryAnn Camilleri (Magenta Foundation).

Joshua Sariñana’s photographic series Prosopagnosia was exhibited at The Griffin@Digital Silver Imaging, a satellite gallery of The Griffin Museum of Photography, from October 4 to December 1, 2016. This deeply personal collection explores themes of memory, identity, and emotion through imagery that reflects on Sariñana’s early adulthood experiences of love, wonder, and isolation. Using circular, telescopic frames as a metaphor for fragmented memory, the series confronts the inaccuracies of recollection, revealing how memories evolve each time they are recalled.