Columbus is hosting a genuine first this season. At the Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti in the Short North, ‘Tavares Strachan: The Day Tomorrow Began’ is the first museum survey in the United States devoted to the pathbreaking conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, born in Nassau, Bahamas, in 1979. The exhibition is on view through January 3, 2027, and it is included with admission; members get in free.
Strachan calls himself an explorer and a storyteller, and the show fuses art, science and cultural inquiry into one immersive, multisensory walk. At its heart is his ‘Encyclopedia of Invisibility,’ a growing archive of figures, events and ideas that official histories left out. Around it, the galleries weave together monumental sculptures, glass and ceramic works, paintings, tapestries, self-playing musical instruments and room-size installations. The experience even spills downtown: a twenty-foot double equestrian statue joining Napoleon Bonaparte with Haitian revolutionary leader Henri Christophe greets visitors in the atrium of CMA’s Broad Street home. The exhibition is co-organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The happiest surprise is ‘Bar Room’ (2022/2025), a fully working rum bar, café and community gathering place built right into the exhibition — and it stays at The Pizzuti as a permanent installation after the show closes. Want a deeper look? A curator-led tour with Daniel Marcus is set for Friday, December 11, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., free for members and $10 for nonmembers. CMA at The Pizzuti, at 632 North Park Street, is open Thursday through Saturday from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. — a joyful, eye-opening stop in the heart of the Short North.
Photo: Jonty Wilde, courtesy of the artist / Columbus Museum of Art
