The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC reopens its doors to the public on June 13, 2024 at 5pm, following an 18-month closure that saw the successful completion of cutting-edge seismic upgrades to its Great Hall, coupled with updated interpretations and new displays of Northwest Coast Indigenous art. As part of the reopening, MOA will present the world premiere exhibition of To Be Seen, To Be Heard: First Nations in Public Spaces, 1900–1965, on display until March 30, 2025, in the Museum’s Audain Gallery. The immersive, multi-media exhibition explores the diverse ways that First Nations people in BC represented themselves as Indigenous in urban public spaces, during the period of potlatch prohibition and other forms of erasure in Canada. Looking back through rich archival material reveals the diverse ways that First Nations worked to be seen and heard striving to have their rights recognized—rights to their lands, their laws and their future. For admission details and exhibition information, visit: moa.ubc.ca

Feature image: 1929_Alberni Valley Museum [PN01873]

Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, this exhibition is the first mid-career survey of the richly layered work of Firelei Báez.

One of the most exciting painters of her generation, Báez delves into the historical narratives of the Atlantic Basin. Over the past twenty years, she has made work that explores the multilayered explorations of the legacy of colonial histories and the African diaspora in the Caribbean and beyond. She draws on the disciplines of anthropology, geography, folklore, fantasy, science fiction and social history to unsettle categories of race, gender and nationality in her paintings, drawings and installations. Her exuberant paintings feature finely wrought, complex and layered uses of pattern, decoration and saturated colour, often overlaid on maps made during colonial rule in the Americas. Báez’s investment in the medium of painting and its capacity for storytelling and mythmaking informs all her work, including her sculptural installations, which bring this quality into three dimensions.

This exhibition offers audiences a timely opportunity to gain a holistic understanding of Báez’s complex and profoundly moving body of work, cementing her as one of the most important artists of the early 21st century.