Spelman College Faculty Presents Exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 

Works Inspired by Travels to Brazil Through Traveling Fellowship with SMFA at Tufts 

Spelman College Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture Kelly Taylor Mitchell will present “Kelly Taylor Mitchell: mouth wide open,” an exhibition of deeply spiritual works inspired by her travels to Salvador, Brazil as a Traveling Fellow for the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. The exhibition will be on view from November 22 - April 26, 2026, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the Edward Linde Gallery (Gallery 168). 

According to a press release by MFA, Mitchell witnessed ever-evolving Afro-syncretic spiritual traditions while traveling to Salvador, in which elements of West African Yoruban rites and Catholicism have fused, forming a syncretic religion called Candomblé. Through her work, Mitchell connects her ongoing project of mapping diverse cultural and familial connections across the American South and the Caribbean with powerful Candomblé spiritual traditions.  

The exhibition’s title, “mouth wide open,” indicates the awe such encounters inspired in Michell, while also referencing artist Romare Bearden’s conception of the Black artist as “a whale swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.” 

I am elated to share this work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Papermaking, textiles, beads and brick are the materials and processes that ground the work on view,” said Mitchell. “The exhibition, reflecting an ongoing project of mapping Diasporic retentions from the American South, Caribbean and Bahia, is celebratory, reverent and full of feeling. I am especially looking forward to sharing my exhibition and the city's eclectic art and visual culture with the five Spelmanite artists who will travel with me to Boston in February.” 

 Located in northeast Brazil in the region of Bahia, Salvador is home to one of the largest populations of active maroon or “quilombo” communities. These communities are descendants of formerly enslaved people who self-emancipated and lived autonomously. The city is now renowned as a center of African diasporic culture.  

While in Salvador, Mitchell attended the annual festival of Iemanjá celebrating Yoruban “orisha” (goddess) of the sea. There, she participated in processions and offerings and observed religious artworks that were both utilitarian and mystical. 

The works in this exhibition are inspired by the powerful, ocean-oriented talismanic objects and ritual performances the artist was invited to observe while in Brazil. They channel communication between her own forebears, non-biological kin, and greater divinities, acting as sites of reunion between the artist and figures in her own familial and cultural pantheon. While their true activation only occurs in private, they help viewers to imagine performing similar communions of our own. 

Mitchell’s exhibition is part of a long-standing collaboration between SMFA at Tufts and the MFA facilitated through the Tufts University Art Galleries. Through this collaboration, gallery space is dedicated to the work of SMFA at Tufts students or alumni each year.  

The SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellowships provide critical early-career support for alumni, allowing them to further develop and inform their practice. Selected by a rotating jury, Traveling Fellows receive up to $10,000 to pursue travel and research related to their art practice. The application process is open to alumni working in any contemporary visual art discipline. 

Mitchell received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2015. She also holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her first solo exhibition at the MFA, “mouth wide open” is supported by SMFA at Tufts and Tufts University Art Galleries. She was named an SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellow in 2022. 

To learn more about Mitchell’s exhibition, visit mfa.org.  

Thumbnail Photo: Credits to Nydia Blas, Assistant Prof. of Art & Visual Culture
First Embedded Photo: Kelly Taylor Mitchell, "Family Reunion." Handmade paper. Courtesy the artist.
Second Embedded Photo: Kelly Taylor Mitchell, "Pano da Costa #1" (detail), 2024. Handmade paper. Courtesy the artist.