Deferred Reality: The Reimagination of the American Dream: Nikko Washington and Jacob Rochester

VSG Contemporary is pleased to present Deferred Reality: Reimagination of the American Dream, a two-person exhibition featuring Nikko Washington and Jacob Rochester.  Both artists explore the intersections of identity, lineage, and representation through portraiture and figuration, their practices unfold across distinct and parallel spectrums, geographically, historically, and spiritually.

Washington, born in Chicago, traces his visual language to the South, drawing inspiration from his family’s roots in Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta.  Across his  works, a throughline emerges, particularly within “Day Shift”, serving as autobiography and trope, a direct story line of a working-class creative who’s traded a 9-to-5 for a 10-to-10, immersed in trappings of hustle culture. 

Rochester, who lives and works in Los Angeles, grounds his imagery in his Afro-Caribbean heritage, drawing from Jamaica and its diaspora to construct portraits rooted in memory and artifact. His work celebrates the uplifting nature of the Black family dynamic, both deeply personal and universally resonant, rendered in a style evocative of a time before everyone carried a camera in their pocket, when images emerged through film development.

Deferred Reality marks the first time their work has been intentionally positioned in dialogue. The exhibition takes its title and conceptual grounding from Langston Hughes’ poem Harlem, which opens with the question, “What happens to a dream deferred?”.  Here, the American Dream is reimagined as an ongoing performance, one sustained by repetition, endurance, and collective belief.  Moving between the everyday and the extraordinary, here the American stage becomes a site of spectacle and reimagination.  A place where family histories, collective memory, and mystical visions converge.  Between nostalgia and futurism, each artist reclaims the right to dream again. 

Both artists share an affinity for music, art, and fashion, each beginning their creative paths through graphic design.  Washington’s multidisciplinary approach has led to showcasing work at the Art Institute of Chicago with Chance the Rapper, while his paintings have been exhibited at Kavi Gupta, The Hole, Anthony Gallery, The Cabin Residency, and VSG Contemporary. His portraiture often honors the artists, activists, and visionaries who have shaped his community, serving as both archive and act of preservation.

Rochester, whose breakout year has included designing Sabrina Carpenter’s album art and commissions with Nike, Apple, NBA & Herman Miller. He has exhibited with Jeffrey Deitch, Art Paris Fair, Galerie Marguo, Franchise, Anthony Gallery, Swish, and VSG Contemporary. His practice merges the visual rhythms of music, design, and painting into poetic compositions that honor the beauty and complexity of Black life across eras and geographies.

Together, Washington and Rochester stretch the idea of the American Dream beyond its historical confines, into something more fluid, more reflective, more inclusive and human.