Tavares Strachan's First Major Museum Survey Opens in Columbus with Permanent Rum Bar

Tavares Strachan's first major museum exhibition, "Tavares Strachan: The Day Tomorrow Began," is on view at the Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti through January 3, 2027. The show brings together nearly a decade of work across sculpture, painting, neon texts, and music. Central to the exhibition is "The Encyclopedia of Invisibility" (2018), a 2,000+ page publication with over 17,000 entries on marginalized figures and ideas. Other works include "Flip Monument (Christophe x Napoleon)" (2025), a 20-foot-tall double equestrian statue pairing Napoleon Bonaparte with Haitian revolutionary Henri Christophe, installed at the museum's main building. The exhibition is anchored by "Bar Room," a fully operational rum bar and café permanently installed at The Pizzuti, acquired by the museum in 2024 and installed in October 2025. It serves as a participatory installation and gathering place celebrating Afro-Caribbean culture and reggae in Columbus. A monograph, "Tavares Strachan," will be released by Phaidon this summer as part of its Contemporary Artists Series. Strachan, born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, describes himself as an "explorer" whose practice fuses art, science, and cultural inquiry, foregrounding archival research into overlooked histories of the Black diaspora.