Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs Opening Reception + Performance

Join us for a reception to celebrate the opening of Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs, featuring the work of manuel arturo abreu, DB Amorin, Jonathan González, fields harrington, Africanus Okokon, and sidony o’neal. Their works across sculpture, new media, sound, print, installation, and video, evoke the oft-denigrating phrase “magical thinking,” signaling to skeptics an impossibility or distortion in the connection between beliefs and reality. Works in the exhibition resist Western frameworks and their historically dominant visual and political regimes, instead offering invitations to see signs, relationships, and links between the material and spiritual worlds in knowledge systems from across the Global South.

During the reception, manuel arturo abreu will present altar for the unthought, 2026. Combining the formats of artist talk and piano concert, the non-disciplinary artist will examine their relationship to the notion of “magical thinking” in this partly-improvised performance.

Magical Thinking, of Systems and Beliefs is organized by TUAG curator Laurel V. McLaughlin and accompanied by a reader, featuring contributions from participating artists joined by scholars and artists Rebecca Schneider, M. NourbeSe Philip, Emilio Rojas, and S*an Henry Smith. Exhibition design is provided by Common Space, a creative studio founded by Jon Santos. Generous funding is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Image: Jonathan González with Marguerite Hemmings, Frequencies of Black Assembly and the Mythic, 2023. Performance with Anselm Kiefer’s The Women of the Revolution (Les Femmes de la Révolution), 1992/2013 at MASS MoCA in Magical Thinking, November 11, 2023. Photo: Ryan Harper.