Cassi Namoda: Life is the Seamstress of Dreams
Diane Severin Nguyen: WAR SONGS duet
September 18, 2026–February 21, 2027
601 W Broad St
23220 Richmond VA
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–5pm
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University presents three solo exhibitions by multidisciplinary artists Tony Cokes, Cassi Namoda, and Diane Severin Nguyen, on view now through February 21, 2027, at the Markel Center.
The fall exhibitions feature a survey spanning more than three decades of work by Richmond-born Cokes, new site-specific commissions by internationally recognized Namoda, and a kinetic sonic installation by Severin Nguyen. Together, the exhibitions explore film, photography, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance.
Tony Cokes: Texts, Tracks, Talks (1992–2026) is a survey of Tony Cokes (b. 1956, Richmond, Virginia), whose politically charged video essays examine structural racism, power, visibility, and ideologies embedded in popular culture.
At the center of the exhibition is a newly commissioned work Against Monumentality, 2026, which addresses Cokes’s longstanding interest in monuments and impermanence, rooted in his experience growing up in Richmond. Other works incorporate lectures and writings by figures including Mark Fisher, Okwui Enwezor, and Kodwo Eshun. The exhibition concludes with Word Portraits, which construct figures such as Britney Spears, Kanye West, David Bowie, Paul Revere Williams, and Michael Jackson through language, citation, rumor, and speculation rather than likeness. In 2024, Cokes was named a MacArthur Fellow. The exhibition marks his return to Richmond and VCU, where he earned his MFA in sculpture in 1985. Curated by Amber Esseiva, Senior Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs.
Cassi Namoda: Life is the Seamstress of Dreams is the first U.S. institutional exhibition dedicated to Cassi Namoda (b. 1988, Maputo, Mozambique). Featuring more than 20 paintings created between 2018 and 2026, along with selected films, the exhibition draws on Namoda’s experiences across Mozambique, Haiti, Indonesia, New York, and other coastal and global cities. Her paintings explore Mozambican culture, folklore, mythology, and the lingering effects of colonial history through a postcolonial African and Lusophone perspective. Layered color and expressive brushwork create dreamlike worlds shaped by memory and daily life, with references to writers and artists including Luis Bernardo Honwana, Ousmane Sembène, and Ricardo Rangel.
New commissions and exhibition design elements—including Sona ideograph-inspired handwoven rugs produced with Casa Amar—extend her interest in craft, storytelling, devotion, and knowledge transmission. Curated by Jessica Bell Brown, Executive Director of the ICA.
Diane Severin Nguyen: WAR SONGS duet adapts Diane Severin Nguyen’s (b. 1990, Carson City, California) performance WAR SONGS, commissioned for the 2025 Performa Biennial. The kinetic and sonic installation examines how pop culture and media shape public sentiment, political identity, and the collective subconscious.
The work features a fictional protest band performing mash-ups of Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” and Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA,” juxtaposing Cold War-era protest music with contemporary pop. Severin Nguyen also references psychological tactics employed during wartime, including broadcasts by Vietnamese radio personality Trịnh Thị Ngọ, known as “Hanoi Hannah.” The installation considers the political character of pop music and the broader global consequences of mass media. Curated by Egbert Vongmalaithong, Assistant Curator.
The ICA’s fall exhibitions will be accompanied by free public programs and events. For more information visit icavcu.org.
About the ICA at VCU
The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University is a non-collecting institution presenting exhibitions, performances, and programs that foster dialogue and collaboration. Opened in 2018 in the Steven Holl-designed Markel Center, the ICA is part of VCU’s School of the Arts and connects Richmond and VCU to an international network of artists and organizations. Admission is free and open to all.
About VCUARTS
Virginia Commonwealth University is an urban public research university in downtown Richmond with more than 28,000 students. VCU’s School of the Arts offers undergraduate and graduate programs across fine arts, design, performing arts, historical research, and pedagogical practice, with faculty and students engaged in creative and scholarly work locally and globally.
