Opening Celebration for salt 17:Adama Delphine Fawundu and Relative Truths
Friday, September 26, 2025 | 6–9 pm | Free
RSVP Coming Soon
You’re invited to a free celebration at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Celebrate not one, but two new exhibitions at the Museum! Enjoy a mocktail, vibe to beats provided by a live DJ, and mingle with emerging artist Adama Delphine Fawundu and the faculty artists behind Relative Truths.
salt 17 artist, Adama Delphine Fawundu, is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY of Mende, Bubi, Krim ancestry. Her work explores themes such as indigenisation, ancestral memory and activating the radical imagination. The works in this exhibition were made with a process that Fawundu calls “kpoto patchwok,” a combination of the Mende word for gathering fruits and nuts for communal nourishment (kpoto) and the Krio word for piecing together textiles (patchwok). By drawing together materials from Congo, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Brazil, Nigeria, and Utah, Fawundu stitches together a collective history of the African diaspora that imagines a more interconnected future. Her work is displayed in conversation with objects from the UMFA’s African Art collection, which were selected by the artist for their resonance with her practice.
Relative Truths, curated by Peter Hay and comprised of the works of contemporary faculty artists, invites contemplation of human relationships relative to truth/fiction, past/present, physical/virtual space, as well as the complexities of social structures today. As faculty in the University of Utah’s Department of Art & Art History, these contemporary artists share a connection to the Salt Lake City Area, but their work is not contained by geography. Global connections proliferate due to constant social media connections, and minds constantly merge via algorithmic feeds filled with content fabricated by artificial intelligence. Artists today are flush with information, inspiration, and tools inconceivable to earlier generations.
We hope you’ll join explore the galleries, engage in critical conversations, and enjoy the festivities in the Great Hall.
The current installation in the G.W. Anderson Family Great Hall is Stone on Boundary by artist Onishi Yasuaki.
