Dominique Moody's NOMAD Exhibition at Armory Arts Center Pasadena Through January 16, 2027

Key facts

• NOMAD: Dominique Moody and the Assemblage of Home is on view at the Armory Arts Center, 145 N. Raymond Ave, Pasadena, through January 16, 2027.
• The exhibition is curated by Taylor Bythewood-Porter and is part of a year-long city celebration for the centennials of Route 66 and the Colorado Boulevard Bridge.
• Moody was born in Augsburg, Germany, to two African-American parents and has lived in Germany, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; this is almost her fiftieth address.
• She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1991 with a Phi Beta Kappa Honor in Fine Art Practice and received the Maybelle Toombs Award; she was diagnosed as legally blind at 28.
• Her central work N.O.M.A.D. Narrative. Odyssey. Manifesting. Artistic. Dreams. is a 1950 salvaged truck and trailer built from washing machine doors, corrugated metal, vintage barn wood, a bicycle rim, reclaimed wood, and collage panels.
• The exhibition includes a 23-foot-3.5-inch architectural elevation drawing of the truck and trailer layered with silhouettes of people, and corked glass bottles tagged SWEAT EQUITY, one labeled Los Angeles, 1996.
• My Road to Freedom (2009), a cardboard shoebox, vintage metal roller skate, raffia, found objects, and map collage measuring 8 by 12 by 6 inches, is in the collection of Dr. Joy Simmons.
• Moody has exhibited at the California African American Museum, Craft Contemporary, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the National Museum of Mexican-American Art in Chicago, the Japanese American National Museum, the Skirball Cultural Center, and the Watts Towers Arts Center, and has received grants from the California Community Foundation, Finding Family Stories, and the Seen and Heard Foundation.