Image: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin
‘The land is a being who remembers everything’ is on view at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, from 22 August 2026 through 11 July 2027. The exhibition occupies the Stern and Ellen Johnson Galleries.
Bringing together narratives of Oberlin as a site on the Underground Railroad for Black American freedom seekers and of Indigenous land sovereignty and ancestral connections, the exhibition draws connections across 300 years of art. The artists explore histories of forced migration, emancipation and activism, with images of land and sea and intimate, personal experiences central to the presentation.
The centerpiece is a newly commissioned installation by Tongva artist Mercedes Dorame, focused on the role of waterways in connecting people to lineage and identity. Dorame said, “Waterways are not linear paths. They are passageways to freedom.”
Works pictured in connection with the exhibition include Evans Flammond Sr.’s 2018 colored-pencil work ‘The Journey’; Dorame’s archival pigment print ‘Smoke to Water - Chyaar Paar ’Apuuchen’ (2013); Yétúndé Olagbaju’s 2020 color screen print ‘For Edmonia’; and Jeffrey Gibson’s ‘TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS’ (2023).
Sam Adams and Marlise Brown organized the exhibition. Dorame will give an artist talk on 1 October 2026 at 5:30 p.m.
