"In Image Virus, Lahah examines the climate realities surrounding Lethal Bronzing Disease (LBD): a fatal and communicable bacterial illness affecting palm trees across the U.S. Spread by minuscule pierce-sucking insects like palm cixiids, LBD becomes a lens through which Lahah interrogates the broader implications of communicable disease, image production, and ecological collapse.

Through an interdisciplinary approach combining research, print media, and craft-based installation, Image Virus draws striking parallels between the ecological phenomena of LBD and the cultural and industrial systems that shape our contemporary moment. Lahah reveals how nature and humanity mirror one another through the entanglements of image, disease, and material production."

Jake Lahah (b. Wildwood, NJ) is based in Richmond, VA, where he works as an artist, educator, and researcher. His practice centers on themes of labor, queerness, ecology, and the role of visual culture as testimony to the human condition.

Working across installation, printmedia, and craft methodologies, Lahah’s work has been exhibited at institutions including ICA Baltimore (MD), IA&A at Hillyer (Washington, D.C.), Temple Contemporary (PA), Vox Populi (PA), and ADA Gallery (VA).

He currently serves as Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Foundations and Drawing/Painting Department at Old Dominion University. Lahah holds a BFA from George Mason University (2017) and an MFA in Print from Tyler School of Art + Architecture (2024). He is also a recipient of the Gay Cultural Studies Creative Research Grant from the Department of Women and Gender Studies at ODU. In 2024 he was a resident artist at Zygote Press (OH) and will begin the Studio Access Residency at VisArts in Richmond, Virginia this coming Winter.