New Exhibitions in 2026 @ Cummings Art Center, CT & Perlman Teaching Museum, MN

Nsenga Knight's 3 channel film Metem film in BORDERLANDS exhibition

Dear Reader,

I am thrilled to kick off 2026 by sharing my work at two group exhibitions that explore the intersections of decolonization, Black Diasporic identity, and the entanglement of Islam and geometrical form. If you are in Connecticut or Minnesota this winter, I hope you’ll have a chance to visit these shows and join us for the upcoming receptions.


Still from Metem by Nsenga Knight, depicting family gathered around dinner in Guyana.
Nsenga Knight, Metem, Multi-Channel Video, 2024

Borderlands: Soft Margins, Hard Truths

Cummings Art Center, Connecticut College.

January 20 – March 6, 2026

I am pleased to participate in Borderlands, curated by nico w. okoro. This exhibition dismantles the social constructs of race, space, and place to imagine an end to the living legacies of colonialism.

In this show, I am presenting “Metem,” a multi-channel video installation. The work captures a profound moment of homecoming: a dinner with my extended Guyanese family in New York to celebrate my mother’s first return to Guyana in 53 years—and my very first visit to our home country. Through the sharing of traditional Guyanese food, photos, and conversation, Metem explores the “soft margins” of memory and the “hard truths” of displacement and return.


Nsenga Knight, Orientation, Latex and Acrylic Wall Drawing, 2012

The Manifest, The Hidden: Geometry and Islam in Contemporary Art

Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College

January 15 – April 12, 2026

This interdisciplinary exhibition explores the “entanglement” of Geometry and Islam. The title draws from the Qur’anic names for God: al-Ẓāhir (the Manifest) and al-Bāṭin (the Hidden), reflecting the interplay between physical perception and inner sensory experience.

In my practice, I often use geometry as a language for expressing the metaphysical and the sociopolitical. This exhibition highlights how these rigid systems are, in fact, expansive tools for expressing beauty and wonder. This exhibition is curated by Sara Cluggish, Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Kamala GhaneaBassiri, and MurphyKate Montee.

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