Archives shape our feelings about memory, history, geography, storytelling, and ourselves. Traditional archives might look like a storage facility, a repository of public records, or a special library with files of ephemera. This exhibition presents unconventional forms of documentation, as five graduate and undergraduate artists at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University use their chosen mediums to construct, preserve, and share information.

Through video, Alonso Nichols and Zuofu Wang contextualize little-known racialized histories that intersect with their respective Black American and Chinese identities. Julie Francois considers national, familial, and personal history together, combining Haitian and Roman Catholic iconography in a photolithographic collage of her siblings. Rei Xiao and Andrew Cain use painting and fiber arts to transform collective and individual childhood trauma into emotive and evocative autobiographical expressions.

Organized with support from Tufts University Art Galleries, “SMFA at Tufts: Archive and Autobiography” is one in a series of exhibitions that reflects the Museum’s commitment to the next generation of promising artists and curators. It continues the historic relationship between the Museum and the SMFA, which dates back to the school’s founding in 1876.