Upcoming exhibitions

The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU BAM) is pleased to share three new exhibitions, including the inaugural Signature Commission Series exhibition by artist Esmaa Mohamoud. Mohamoud’s exhibition COMPLEX DREAMS, alongside the exhibitions Samia Halaby: Eye Witness and Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People, will be celebrated at the museum’s 2024 fall opening party on September 13. Mohamoud will return to MSU BAM on Sep. 15 for an in-gallery conversation where she’ll discuss the inspiration and process behind her work.

Samia Halaby: Eye Witness
June 29–December 15, 2024
Eye Witness follows Samia Halaby’s creative journey to experiment with the ways painting conveys her experiences and reflects how she sees the world around her. The origins of Halaby’s painterly trajectory are rooted at Michigan State University, where she earned her MA in 1960, and where she began painting in earnest with oil on canvas. Halaby’s paintings, which range from miniature to monumental, 2D to 3D, and monochrome to multicolor, are notably shaped by her experiences, and shift throughout her itinerant career across the Midwest, the East coast, and the Arab world.

Samia Halaby: Eye Witness is organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU BAM) and curated by Rachel Winter, Assistant Curator, with support from Thaís Wenstrom, Curatorial Research and Administrative Assistant, and Laine Lord, Museum Practicum Student and Curatorial Intern. This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Eli and Edythe Broad Endowed Exhibitions Fund.

Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People
August 31, 2024–February 2, 2025
The Puerto Rican diaspora is a collage of overlapping histories of colonialism, resistance, and survival. Diasporic Collage explores Puerto Rican identities in the archipelago and its diasporas. Puerto Rico’s political status and geographical location situate it as a locus of global encounters and ongoing displacement. This exhibition features artists who apply politics of care to how they approach the documentation of diasporic experiences related to Puerto Rico.

Diasporic Collage: Puerto Rico and the Survival of a People is organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU BAM) and the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) at Hunter College, in collaboration with the Diaspora Solidarities Lab (DSL), and curated by Dr. Yomaira Figueroa-Vásquez, directora of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO), formerly associate professor at MSU; Dr. Windy M. Cosme Rosario, instructor, University of Puerto Rico—Río Piedras; and Dalina A. Perdomo Álvarez, assistant curator, MSU BAM; with support from DSL fellows Melanie Rodríguez Vázquez, Ariana Costales Del Toro, Yafrainy Familia, Nicole Hernández, Stephany Bravo, Imaida M. Durán Mariñez, Alana Cordero Montesinos, Meleny González, Olivia M. Ramírez, Jaden Morales, and Yuleysy Ortiz. Support for this series is provided by the MSU Federal Credit Union. The Diaspora Solidarities Lab is made possible with financial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

COMPLEX DREAMS
September 14, 2024–February 16, 2025
This groundbreaking commission by Esmaa Mohamoud—and the inaugural Signature Commission Series exhibition—explores the transformative power of art to express the enduring perseverance and strength of Black girlhood in the face of great adversity. Responding directly to the unique, Zaha Hadid-designed architecture of MSU BAM, Mohamoud’s newly commissioned installation offers a range of experiences across the galleries’ landscapes. Multisensorial and moving, the works on view speak to the artist’s powerful vision for the liberation of Blackness from the shadows of art history and society at large.

COMPLEX DREAMS is organized by the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University (MSU BAM) as part of the Signature Commission Series and curated by Steven L. Bridges, Interim Director & Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. Major funding for this exhibition is provided by the MSU Federal Credit Union and the Eli and Edythe Broad Endowed Exhibitions Fund.