Cassi Namoda: Life Is the Seamstress of Dreams
September 18, 2026 – February 21, 2027
Galleries Two and Three

Cassi Namoda: Life is the Seamstress of Dreams is the first U.S. solo museum presentation of the work of Cassi Namoda (b. 1988, Maputo, Mozambique), whose paintings explore culture, folklore, and mythologies of Mozambique across the nation’s colonial and postcolonial eras. With a particular interest in vernacular forms of design and storytelling, Namoda transforms her childhood memories of post-independence Mozambique into transfixing paintings that dwell simultaneously in the past and in her unique vision for a postcolonial future. Her lively and colorful scenes draw from a pastiche of Pan-African figures including Ousmane Sembène, the Senegalese filmmaker whose avant-garde cinema confronted legacies of oppression, and Ricardo Rangel, whose street photographs documented Maputo’s clandestine interracial nightlife. A constant point of investigation for Namoda is her portrayal of Black heroines, or Marias, whom she situates in liminal spaces between desire, angst, and the divine. This exhibition includes loaned works and newly commissioned paintings, as well as films that reflect Namoda’s long standing practice of collecting, archiving, and weaving together found images and footage into dreamspaces, landscapes, and emotive worlds. 

Click here to listen to a conversation with the artist.

Curated by Jessica Bell Brown, Executive Director of the ICA, the exhibition will be accompanied by a series of free public programs and events.

This season’s exhibitions are made possible with support from the following sponsors.

Richard Birnbaum
Gumenick Properties
Hourigan
Kickstarter
Nancy Brennan Lund and Leo Yeager
Markel Group
Pam Royall
Ann and Jerry Samford
Marcia and Harry Thalhimer

Caroline Wright Art Advisory
Eric Cox and Gina Richard
Ron and Betty Crutcher
Zarina Fazaldin
Jim Klaus
Lacy Shockley Letonoff
Schwanda Rountree
Chip and Lynn Spitzer
Anonymous

Special thanks to our 2026 ICA Gala sponsors whose generous support makes our exhibitions possible.