July 11, 2026 - June 6, 2027
Image Caption: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, “Freedom Trap,” 2013. Polaroid Polacolor Pro. 24 × 20 in. (61.0 × 50.8 cm). Museum purchase from the Jere Abbott Acquisitions Fund, 2024.044
Colby College Museum of Art connects generations across oceans through works by more than 40 contemporary artists in “Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas.” The physically and visually immersive exhibition brings together approximately 50 paintings, sculptures, videos, prints, photographs and multimedia installations, including several newly commissioned works that create site-specific experiences. The artworks explore the artists’ relationships to the histories and communities of their lands and seas.
Themes of cultural and political self-determination, indigeneity and migration and climate crisis and resilience unite the exhibition. One floor is organized geographically, showcasing each island’s uniqueness, while the other floor is organized by theme—Land, Sea and Sky; Religion and Spirituality; Food; and Military Occupations—offering visitors multiple ways to engage with ideas of history, culture and identity.
Two large-scale, double-sided quilts from the “Successions” series by Afro Puerto Rican artist Amber Robles-Gordon set the tone for the exhibition. One pays homage to the artist’s native Puerto Rico and the other is dedicated to Guam. Together, the quilts introduce the central exhibition theme of solidarity between the islands. The exhibition title is presented in English, Spanish, Filipino and CHamoru and is inspired by the work of CHamoru poet Craig Santos Perez. It represents connections that supersede proximity and are rooted in the shared history and experiences across diasporas.
Commissioned works include projected text by Jerome Reyes, ceramics and textiles by Sara Jimenez, Mariquita “Micki” Davis’ large-scale cyanotype on canvas, Isa Gagarin’s painting on fused plastic and a video by Judith Escalona documenting the 2024 Islands Project Convening that brought several artists together to help shape the exhibition. Camille Hoffman’s site-specific installation will transform a transitional space into an immersive environment. Hoffman will paint directly on the walls and floor and affix found objects throughout the corridor, linking the American art collection in the museum’s Lunder Wing to “Imagining an Archipelago.”
The exhibition’s historical focus begins in the late 19th century. As movements toward independence gained momentum across Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, the 1898 Treaty of Paris shifted control from Spain to the United States. “Imagining an Archipelago” is the first major exhibition to use contemporary art to examine the impact of extending Manifest Destiny beyond North America, challenging the perception of the US as a purely continental nation and centering islands that were—and, in the cases of Puerto Rico and Guam, still are—under US control. The exhibition opens a window into living history, offering a new and vital lens through which to see connections between the past and a present moment marked by global and domestic events that test the viability of democracy.
Through painting, photography, installation, sculpture, weaving, assemblage and film, the artists convey the layered realities of life shaped by U.S. expansion. Together, the artworks form a vivid archipelago of stories that underscore the enduring impact of these histories on contemporary American life and invite visitors to reconsider how we carry the past and what it means to be American.
Following its debut at Colby Museum, “Imagining an Archipelago” will embark on a national tour, including showings at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico (fall 2027), a presentation made possible by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (spring/summer 2028) and the Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey (fall 2028).
Support for this exhibition and its national tour is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Teiger Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
https://www.archpaper.com/event/imagining-archipelago-art-cuba-guam-philippines-puerto-rico-diasporas/
