Derrick Adams: View Master offers a comprehensive look at 20 years of the artist’s multidisciplinary practice celebrating contemporary Black life and culture

(Boston, MA—November 13, 2025) In April 2026, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) opens Derrick Adams: View Master, the first survey of New York-based multidisciplinary artist Derrick Adams (b. 1970, Baltimore). The survey exhibition presents more than 100 works spanning over 20 years of the artist’s practice, including never-before-seen works from Adams’s personal archive, immersive exhibition design created by the artist for the ICA, and new works debuting at the ICA. Adams’s paintings, sculptures, collages, performances, videos, and public projects celebrate the richness and complexity of everyday Black American life, and over the past two decades, have transformed these moments into a distinct iconography. On view from April 16 to September 7, 2026, Derrick Adams: View Master is organized by Dexter Wimberly, Independent Curator, with Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator, ICA/Boston. 

“Whether through intimate portraits or large-scale public projects, Adams offers compelling narratives of affirmation and celebration. His work delights in the everyday moments that define the pursuit of happiness in America. Taken together, the works in this exhibition invite audiences to experience joy and feel uplifted through his engaging and visionary practice,” said Nora Burnett Abrams, Ellen Matilda Poss Director at the ICA. 

Derrick Adams’s work centers Black subjects depicted in vibrant scenes of rest, recreation, and self-care. Play is also a central theme in Adams’s practice. Braving the Path, 2023, depicts a young Black boy riding a Funtime Unicorn, referencing the interactive sculptures that Adams has created and installed across various urban landscapes for passers-by to engage with. His vibrant explorations of contemporary life convey a palpable sense of power, referencing many pop culture moments. In another work, Only Happy Thoughts, 2024, Adams portrays a Black woman adorned with bright blue eye shadow and Tootsie Roll candies alongside African masks and elements drawn from Black art traditions. This painting is one of several vibrant and multifaceted portraits that convey his serio-comedic storytelling, establishing situations starring both real and imagined characters through humorous juxtapositions. In one of Adams’s interactive, sculptural works, Cool Down Bench (RBG), 2023, the artist recalls childhood memories of neighborhood ice cream trucks with a large-scale, functional sculpture modeled after the popular red, white, and blue ice pops. However, in this instance, the bench features the colors of the Pan-African flag—red, black, and green—representative of Black liberation. 

“Adams’s use of bold colors, dynamic compositions, and layered textures creates a powerful visual impact that underscores the depth of the Black experience,” said Wimberly and Haas. “His work invites visitors to see the beauty and strength in the everyday lives of Black people with a sense of humor and whimsy.” 

In Derrick Adams: View Master, Adams invites viewers to engage with a world where cultural and creative freedom is essential. The exhibition’s sub-title, View Master, is an ode to the toy that the Black inventor Charles Harrison redesigned in 1958 and reflects Adams’s distinct ability to capture the Black gaze. For the ICA’s presentation, Adams will debut a new work titled View Master, 2025, a large 6 x 8-foot painting featuring a view master—a stereo picture-viewing system that creates the illusion of a 3D world. Adams’s worldbuilding extends to the galleries, where wallpapers designed by the artist will create an immersive visual experience for visitors.  Derrick Adams: View Master is a testament to Adams’s commitment to expanding the conversation around what it means to live and thrive in today’s world.

The exhibition follows Adams’s first-ever monograph, featuring 150 of the artist’s most significant works to date. Published by Phaidon and Monacelli, the book also includes essays by Hallie Ringle, Salamishah Tillet, and Dexter Wimberly, and an interview by Sandra Jackson-Dumont. 

Media Contact: Theresa Romualdez, press@icaboston.org 

Digital Press Kit: https://bit.ly/DerrickAdams 

Credits
Derrick Adams: View Master is organized by Dexter Wimberly, Guest Curator, with Tessa Bachi Haas, Assistant Curator, ICA/Boston.

Support for Derrick Adams: View Master is provided by Gagosian and the Brizius Family Fund for Artists.

With warmest thanks, we gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the ICA’s Avant Guardian Society in making this exhibition possible.

Gagosian logo

Beyond the galleries, the ICA highlights Indigenous makers in a series of public programs and performances 

(Boston, MA—SEPTEMBER 22, 2025) On October 9, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) opens An Indigenous Present, a nationally touring, thematic exhibition spanning 100 years of contemporary Indigenous art. The exhibition includes new commissions and significant works by 15 artists who use strategies of abstraction to represent personal and collective narratives, describe specific and imagined places, and build upon cultural and aesthetic traditions. Co-organized by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the exhibition offers an expansive consideration of Indigenous art practices that highlights a continuum of elders and emerging makers, and premieres newly commissioned site-specific works by Raven Chacon, Caroline Monnet, and Anna Tsouhlarakis. An Indigenous Present emerges from Gibson and Porter’s 2023 landmark publication of the same name, which brought together work by Native North American artists exploring diverse approaches to concept, form, and medium. Their engagement with artists during the making of the book inspired this exhibition—one that demonstrates the endless variability of abstraction and its capacity to hold multiple forms and histories. An Indigenous Present debuts at the ICA, where it will be on view from October 9, 2025, through March 8, 2026, before traveling to the Frist Art Museum in Nashville (June 26—September 27, 2026) and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle (November 7, 2026—February 14, 2027). 

“This exhibition is one take on the field of contemporary art and culture by Native and Indigenous makers. Some of these artists have been working for decades, and I follow in their path; others are at an earlier stage in their careers, and I see new routes and possibilities in their respective practices. Together, they are amplifying the histories that have come before them and building a new context for present and future artists,” said Gibson.    

​​Porter added: ​“Since curating Jeffrey’s first solo museum exhibition at the ICA in 2013, he and I have continued to think together about ways to enlarge art histories. This exhibition is a proposal, one that explores the ways that these artists challenge the often arbitrary, historical categorizations of art by Indigenous makers​.”​ 

At the ICA, An Indigenous Present includes two new commissions that expand the exhibition beyond the galleries. An immersive sound work by Raven Chacon fills ICA’s Founders Gallery overlooking Boston Harbor. A site-specific installation by Caroline Monnet for the museum’s Sandra and Gerald Fineberg Art Wall is composed of commercial building materials that are sewn into a fractal-based composition inspired, in part, by Boston’s 600-year history of land reclamation and the ICA’s harbor location. The fractal patterns, or population “blooms,” derive from Anishinaabeg designs that, for the artist, symbolize interconnectedness, knowledge transmission, and kinship. 

The exhibition unfolds across several galleries, beginning with a focus on the work of George Morrison and Mary Sully, two important forebearers whose works anchor An Indigenous Present in the first decades of the 20th century. Throughout the exhibition, works by emerging artists are positioned in dialogue with those by more established makers within five sections: 

Section 1 
Ground is the term for both land and a receiving surface that has been prepared for painting. It can be understood as both a generative subject and a visual motif—George Morrison and Teresa Baker evoke the land and light of their ancestral homelands through an interplay of color and form. In this section, artists merge these conceptions of “ground,” using abstraction to visualize sense memories, places, and histories. Section 1 includes artworks by Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Sky Hopinka, George Longfish, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, and Mary Sully. 

Section 2 
This gallery includes works that use abstraction to convey expansive concepts through minimal means. It begins with Kay WalkingStick’s monumental Chief Joseph Series, from the 1970s, a work about the heroic Nez Perce chief. The 27 paintings, arranged in a grid, assert space and accumulate meaning. Other works in this section use similar strategies of repetition, with individual parts inextricable from the whole. Section 2 includes artworks by Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Dakota Mace, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, Mary Sully, and Kay WalkingStick. 

Section 3 
In this gallery, sound is an abstraction that flows through shape, line, and pattern. Following the theory of counterpoint—a composition of two or more voices that are both harmonically interdependent, and distinct in melody and rhythm—the works here converse with one another. Some reference stories, prayers, and singing, evoking the sounds these modes of communication require. Other works portray composers, compositions, and sound patterns. Section 3 includes artworks by Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Sky Hopinka, Caroline Monnet, Audie Murray, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Mary Sully. 

Section 4 
The works in this gallery feature a range of techniques and media that artists use to collapse the distinctions between concept and material. Labored surfaces obscure shapes and images, scale equalizes object and space, and a reduced palette is used to compress space and obscure subjectivity. Section 4 includes artworks by Teresa Baker, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, George Longfish, Kimowan Metchewais, George Morrison, and Kay WalkingStick. 

Section 5 
In this gallery, we see artists merging idea and medium. Anna Tsouhlarakis mixes found and sourced materials in her new large-scale sculpture, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith smokes and works the surface of a canvas as one would a hide. Both found and sourced materials come with pre-existing associations that artists coax into works that draw from personal and cultural knowledge. Section 5 includes artworks by Teresa Baker, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mary Sully, Anna Tsouhlarakis, and Kay WalkingStick. 

Press Preview 
Media are invited to attend the press preview for An Indigenous Present on Tuesday, October 7, at 9:30am. RSVP to press@icaboston.org 

Programming 
Throughout the run of the exhibition, the ICA will host a series of performances, including a new, multidisciplinary commission by Raven Chacon. On October 11, visitors will experience a full day of the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist’s sound-based works and installations presented throughout the museum. Other programming throughout the run of the exhibition includes a short film series curated by artist Sky Hopinka in the museum’s Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater; an interactive and family-friendly art installation by Mashpee-Wampanoag artist Robert Peters in the ICA Bank of America Art Lab; an Artist’s Voice conversation with artists Caroline Monnet and Sky Hopinka; and many more related events. 

Artist List  
Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa; born 1985 in Watford City, ND) 
Raven Chacon (Diné; born 1977 at Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation) 
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk Nation; born 1984 in Bellingham, WA) 
Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq and Koyukon Athabascan; born 1969 in Bethel, AK) 
Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill (Cree and Métis; born 1979 in Comox, British Columbia) 
George Longfish (Seneca and Tuscarora; born 1942 in Ohsweken, Ontario) 
Dakota Mace (Diné; born 1991 in Albuquerque, NM) 
Kimowan Metchewais (Cree; born 1963 in Oxbow, Saskatchewan; died 2011 in St. Paul, Alberta) 
Caroline Monnet (Algonquin-Anishinaabe and French; born 1985 in Ottawa, Ontario) 
George Morrison (Ojibwe; born 1919 in Chippewa City, MN; died 2000, Red Rock, MN) 
Audie Murray (Cree and Métis; born 1993 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) 
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation; born 1940 at St. Ignatius Mission, Flathead Reservation, MT; died 2025 in Corrales, NM) 
Mary Sully (Yankton Dakota; born 1896 at Standing Rock Reservation, SD; died 1963 in Omaha, NE) 
Anna Tsouhlarakis (Navajo, Creek, and Greek; born 1977 in Lawrence, KS) 
Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee and Anglo; born 1935 in Syracuse, NY) 

Credits  
An Indigenous Present is organized by Jeffrey Gibson and Jenelle Porter, guest curators, with Erika Umali, Curator of Collections, and Max Gruber, Curatorial Assistant. 

This exhibition is supported in part by Mathieu O. Gaulin, Peggy J. Koenig, Barbara H. Lloyd, Kim Sinatra, the Fotene Demoulas Fund for Curatorial Research and Publications, and an anonymous donor. 

With warmest thanks, we gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the ICA’s Avant Guardian Society in making this exhibition possible. 

About the ICA  
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.  

Media Contact  
Theresa Romualdez, press@icaboston.org 

Opening Aug. 28, the exhibition features new boldly colored paintings born out of the artist’s dreams

(Boston, MA—MAY 29, 2025) This August, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) opens artist Portia Zvavahera’s (born 1985 in Harare, Zimbabwe) first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. Inspired by Zvavahera’s dreams, her layered compositions merge painting and printmaking techniques to create a dazzling array of flat layers and textures. These include the markings of wax relief, linocut stamps, cardboard stencils, lace, and palm leaves from her garden that form figures in atmospheric settings. This exhibition centers animals and the role they play in Zvavahera’s work and the many traditions she draws upon. Featuring a selection of seven of the artist’s works, Zvavahera’s ICA presentation includes three new paintings on view for the first time. Organized by Ruth Erickson, Barbara Lee Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Meghan Clare Considine, Curatorial Assistant, Portia Zvavahera: Hidden Battles/Hondo dzakavanzika is on view from Aug. 28, 2025, to Jan. 19, 2026. 

Portia Zvavahera: Hidden Battles/Hondo dzakavanzika includes a selection of recent and new works that focus on the animals that populate the artist’s dreams and thus her pictorial world, revealing the significant and symbolic role animals play. A single powerful dream can produce several distinct and evocative paintings. Throughout the work, Zvavahera engages with Zimbabwean figurative painting as well as the Indigenous Shona and African Pentecostal faith traditions in which she was raised. Her works navigate a broad range of references, from the Shona belief that eagles travel between heaven and earth carrying messages, to the symbolic role of the snake in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, to the flattened pictorial field of modern art.  

“Zvavahera compares her practice to the act of worship,” said Erickson and Considine. “Her vivid paintings conjure worlds glimpsed in her dreams, where animals repeatedly appear, bringing with them foreboding and prophetic associations that she is able to visualize in her work.” 

In Ndirikumabvisa (2024), a hoard of rats is painted alongside a figure lying prostrate atop a dripping red background, referencing a nightmare during Zvavahera’s pregnancy. Rats reappear in Tinosvetuka Rusvingo (2024), where they gather underneath a trio of winged figures that evoke associations with angels in Western painting traditions and large birds of prey, which are powerful creatures in Shona cosmology. A bull appears to commune with a figure in Prayer amid a battle (2021), and coiled and double-headed snakes appear in her most recent paintings completed in May 2025. This exhibition will be an opportunity for a wider audience to encounter the work of one of the most exciting contemporary painters working in Southern Africa today. 

Artist Biography 
Portia Zvavahera was born in 1985 in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she currently lives and works. She studied at the BAT Visual Arts Studio, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, from 2003 to 2004. She then received a diploma in fine arts from Harare Polytechnic in 2006. 

The artist has presented several solo exhibitions with Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2014–2023), and a solo exhibition with Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles (2017), as well as solo and group exhibitions at David Zwirner, New York, Los Angeles and London (2020-2024). The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, presented her solo exhibition Under My Skin in 2010, and in 2020, the Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius, held her solo exhibition Walk of Life. She was invited to show her work as part of the Zimbabwean Pavilion exhibition Dudziro: Interrogating the Visions of Religious Beliefs at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. In 2022, her work was included in the Milk of Dreams exhibition at the 59th Venice Biennale. In October 2024,  Zvavahera had her first European institutional solo exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, part of their Open Space programming; in the same month the artist had her first UK solo institutional exhibition Zvakazarurwa, organized between Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge and Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (travelled in 2025).  

About the ICA   
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. The Watershed is located at 256 Marginal Street, East Boston, MA 02128. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.   

Media Contact 
Theresa Romualdez, press@icaboston.org

Credits 
Portia Zvavahera is organized by Ruth Erickson, Barbara Lee Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Meghan Clare Considine, Curatorial Assistant.