Gregory Allicar Museum of Art Presents AfroBohemian Home: An Installation by Zsudayka Nzinga
Immersive installation transforms the museum into a living archive of Black American life
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at Colorado State University is proud to present AfroBohemian Home: An Installation by Zsudayka Nzinga, curated by Louise Cutler. Opening September 2, 2026, the exhibition transforms the museum gallery into a living archive of Black American life—a richly layered domestic environment where history, memory, family, beauty, and cultural identity converge.
Through handcrafted furniture, paintings, textiles, books, photographs, and personal artifacts, multidisciplinary artist Zsudayka Nzinga constructs an immersive home that invites visitors to experience the Black domestic interior as a place of memory, scholarship, creativity, and cultural preservation. More than recreating a home, the installation reveals how ordinary spaces become extraordinary repositories of history, carrying the stories of generations through the objects we make, the traditions we keep, and the lives we live.
Drawing from cultural anthropology, historical research, and her own family history, Nzinga explores Black aesthetics, radical self-care, resilience, and the everyday rituals that have sustained Black communities across generations. Throughout the exhibition, visitors are invited to consider larger questions: How did we get here? What traditions, memories, and survival practices shaped these interiors? How do the objects we inherit carry the stories of those who came before us? And where are we going from here?
At the heart of AfroBohemian Home is the belief that the Black home is far more than a physical structure. It is a sanctuary, a classroom, a place of celebration, mourning, creativity, faith, resistance, and belonging. It is where generations preserve family histories, pass down traditions, cultivate beauty, and create spaces of refuge in response to the ever-present realities of history. In Nzinga's hands, the home becomes a cultural archive—one built not through official records alone, but through furniture, photographs, books, textiles, heirlooms, music, color, craftsmanship, and everyday acts of care.
Created through an extensive process of listening, research, experimentation, and making, the installation incorporates hand-dyed textiles, custom-built furniture, mixed-media paintings, decorative papers, photography, and screen-printed imagery. Nzinga's studio practice is deeply informed by history, literature, podcasts, lectures, and cultural research. She hand-dyes fabrics using traditional Muck Dye techniques before layering wax-resist printing, marbling, screen printing, and collage to construct visual narratives that explore both historical trauma and enduring joy. Florals, cotton, agricultural imagery, and domestic objects become symbols that connect past and present, revealing the persistence of memory across generations.
Central to the installation is the collaboration between Nzinga and her daughter, Satra Terrell, a multidisciplinary artist working in animation, painting, photography, furniture building, and upholstery. Together they handcrafted many of the exhibition's furnishings, including custom-built furniture and reupholstered seating. Their collaboration reflects one of the exhibition's central themes: the passing of artistic knowledge, craftsmanship, and cultural memory from one generation to the next.
The exhibition also features an interpretive gallery that provides visitors with a behind-the-scenes look at Nzinga's artistic practice. A time-lapse video documents the transformation of the gallery into AfroBohemian Home, while displays of studio tools, textile samples, sketches, research materials, historical references, and process artifacts reveal the scholarship and craftsmanship behind the installation. Rather than functioning as supplemental material, this space invites visitors into the artist's studio and demonstrates how research, memory, making, and storytelling come together to create the finished work.
Curator Louise Cutler describes the exhibition as "a living archive of Black American life."
"AfroBohemian Home is more than an art installation—it is a living archive of Black American life. Every chair, every textile, every photograph, every book, and every handcrafted object carries memory. Together they tell stories of beauty, resilience, creativity, family, and cultural continuity. Visitors are invited not only to enter a home, but to walk through generations of lived experience and discover how history continues to shape our present."
The exhibition also highlights the role of Black aesthetics as acts of resilience and self-determination. Through fashion, interior design, craftsmanship, color, and everyday rituals of care, Nzinga examines the ways Black communities have continually created beauty and affirmed identity despite historical and contemporary challenges. Her work offers a powerful reflection on the home as both a site of personal memory and a space where cultural knowledge is continually preserved, reimagined, and shared.
As part of the exhibition, visitors are invited to attend an Opening Reception and Artist Talk on September 2, 2026, where Nzinga will discuss her artistic practice, research, and the creation of AfroBohemian Home. Additional lectures, gallery tours, and educational programs with Colorado State University students and faculty will take place throughout the exhibition.
AfroBohemian Home ultimately reminds us that museums are not the only places where history is preserved. Homes are archives. Families are archives. The objects we keep, the stories we tell, the beauty we create, and the traditions we pass from one generation to the next all become part of a living cultural record. Through this extraordinary installation, Zsudayka Nzinga invites us to see the Black home as one of America's most enduring and powerful archives of memory, resilience, creativity, and cultural identity.
Exhibition Information
AfroBohemian Home: An Installation by Zsudayka Nzinga
Curated by Louise Cutler
Exhibition Dates: September 2 – December 13, 2026
Opening Reception & Artist Talk: September 2, 2026
Location:
Gregory Allicar Museum of Art
Colorado State University
1400 Remington Street
Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
Admission is free and open to the public.
About the Artist
Zsudayka Nzinga is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and educator whose work explores Black American history, cultural memory, anthropology, and identity through painting, textiles, installation, and mixed media. Combining historical research with innovative material processes, her work investigates how beauty, family, labor, and self-determination have shaped Black American life. Her installations and mixed-media works have been exhibited nationally and are recognized for their integration of scholarship, craftsmanship, and visual storytelling.
About the Curator
Louise Cutler is an independent curator, multidisciplinary artist, and founder of Louise Cutler Studio. Her curatorial practice centers on creating exhibitions that amplify historically underrepresented voices, foster meaningful cultural dialogue, and connect communities through contemporary art. Through immersive exhibitions and collaborative programming, she seeks to create spaces where art becomes a catalyst for education, reflection, and lasting community engagement.
Contact:
Louise Cutler
Artist and Independent Curator
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