Image: Columbus Museum of Art ; the artist, photo by Jonty Wilde
The Columbus Museum of Art is presenting ‘Tavares Strachan: The Day Tomorrow Began,’ the first museum survey in the United States devoted to the conceptual artist Tavares Strachan. The exhibition brings together immersive, multisensory installations and monumental works at Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti, where it is on view from May 16, 2026, through January 3, 2027.
Co-organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the exhibition examines Strachan’s long-running interest in overlooked people, suppressed histories and alternative systems of knowledge. The presentation includes sculpture, glass and ceramic works, paintings, tapestries, self-playing musical instruments and room-scale installations.
At its centre is ‘The Encyclopedia of Invisibility,’ an evolving, open-ended archive of figures, events and ideas that Strachan describes through his work as hidden from dominant historical narratives. The project has informed many of the artist’s recent works and provides a framework for the survey’s combination of objects, environments and historical references.
Strachan, born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, defines himself as an explorer and storyteller. His practice fuses art, science and cultural inquiry, using varied materials and formats to investigate how knowledge is preserved, excluded and transmitted. Works listed in the exhibition documentation include ‘Six Thousand Years’ (2018), ‘Robert’ (2018), ‘A Map of the Crown (Amasunzu Black)’ (2023), ‘Lucky Brown (small)’ (2025) and ‘Galaxy Defender’ (2025).
A central component is ‘Bar Room’ (2022/2025), a fully operational rum bar, café and community gathering place installed on the third floor of The Pizzuti. The space is designed as a site of connection, conviviality and cultural memory, and includes handcrafted cocktails, locally roasted coffee and light bites. Unlike the temporary exhibition, ‘Bar Room’ will remain at The Pizzuti as a permanent installation after the survey closes.
The museum is also presenting programming in dialogue with the exhibition. On September 26, ‘Garvey’s Ghost: Frederic Bertley and Mark Christian on Pan-African Histories and Futures’ will connect Strachan’s ‘U.N.I.A. Tea Room’—which features archival materials from the Bertley family collection—with the history and continuing legacy of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The programme includes a reception in ‘Bar Room’ followed by a conversation with Bertley and Christian.
‘The Day Tomorrow Began’ is included with admission to Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti, located at 632 Park Street in Columbus. The venue is open Thursday through Saturday from 2 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; ‘Bar Room’ remains open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The exhibition continues through January 3, 2027.
