TRACI HARMON-HAY - unmoored
TRACI HARMON-HAY
September 05 - 21 2026
Farm Projects is pleased to present Un_moored, an exhibition of new paintings and watercolor assemblages by Wellfleet artist Traci Harmon-Hay, on view September 5–21, 2026. While the gallery will be featuring recent work primarily from the artist’s Floating Boat series, it coincides with a new body of political illustrations titled The Greatest Reality Show on Earth, which the artist will debut in her studio during an event presented in conjunction with the exhibition.
Begun in 2023, Harmon-Hay’s Floating Boat series is a body of work whose central image, a fishing vessel suspended in open air, has only grown more resonant over the years. Rendered in acrylic on canvas as well as in the artist's signature small-scale watercolor assemblages, these boats hover untethered from the sea: ascending, descending, or simply holding still. Against a backdrop of climate uncertainty and a shifting regulatory landscape, the series presents the boat as a symbol of refuge and the thin, seemingly fragile anchor line trailing beneath it, a gesture of hope that the vessel might remain connected to the ocean.
Of the series, the artist writes: “The nautical phrase ‘Don't give up the ship’ means to never surrender. It is a symbol of resilience and perseverance against overwhelming odds. The ‘vessels’ in this series are forced to face this adversity everyday at sea and they must rise above to overcome.”
The implicit commentary of the Floating Boats becomes a pointed outcry in the artist’s new series, The Greatest Reality Show on Earth. Through this work, Harmon-Hay responds to a deeply felt need “to illustrate how our government has turned into a theatrical performative affair.” She will present these new illustrations on Sunday, September 06, 5-7pm in an event with gallery director Susie Nielsen exploring art as a vehicle for expression in a difficult world. Similarly, on Tuesday, September 01, Harmon-Hay and Nielsen will join host Ira Wood on The Lowdown with Ira Wood, airing live from 12:30–1:00 PM on WOMR-FM (92.1 FM Provincetown, Truro, and Wellfleet; 91.3 FM Eastham, Orleans, Cape Cod, and Boston's South Shore) and streaming worldwide at womr.org, where the episode will also be available as a podcast. The conversation will touch on the upcoming exhibition, art and politics, and the artist's need for self-expression.
About the Artist Traci Harmon-Hay received her BFA in illustration painting from the Maryland Institute of Art and studied with Fritz Briggs of the Schuler School of Fine Arts in Baltimore. Represented by New York’s Creative Freelancers, Harmon-Hay co-founded Studio Six, an illustration co-op. Her clients included the Washington Times, Baltimore Sun, Nation’s Business Magazine, Yankee Publishing and Cambell’s. She owned the Harmon Gallery in Wellfleet from 2000 until 2014 and was a gallery artist through 2020. She has also exhibited her work at the Left Bank Gallery, Wellfleet MA, the Cahoon Museum, Cotuit MA, Bromfield Gallery, Boston MA, the Fountain Street Gallery, Boston MA and the Carver Hill Gallery, Camden ME. She is a member and teacher at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown MA and Castle Hill, Truro MA. She lives in Wellfleet with her husband and two daughters.
