This fall, the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C. will present Ceremony, the first institutional solo exhibition for artist Lindsay Adams (b. 1990), who was most recently commissioned to create a site-specific installation for the new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Drawing on Adams’ background in international studies and cultural anthropology, the exhibition explores the histories of Black movement, migration, and world-building by placing new works in conversation with never-beforeseen ephemera from the collection of Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries.
On view from October 29, 2025, through March 7, 2026, Ceremony invites visitors to imagine alternate spaces of joy, safety, and reflection through Adams’ gestural brush strokes that unfurl into abstract landscapes. Centered around Kind of Blue (1959) (2024), a large diptych named after Miles Davis’ iconic album, and the only preexisting, though never-before-seen, work in the show, the exhibition is composed of 14 paintings and five works on paper, shown alongside nearly 20 archival objects that place the themes of Black mobility running through Adams’ work into historical context. Resonating with and informing Lindsay’s work, rare books and personal correspondence from historical figures such as Langston Hughes, Hazel Scott, Josephine Baker, and Billie Holiday, as well as objects from unknown individuals underscore the deep historical connection between artistic production and Black freedom. Writings from Adams’ personal notebook will also be displayed in the gallery, and visitors are invited to offer their thoughts on postcards in return, to become part of the space and “join the ceremony.”