Insight into the Other
14 Nov 2025 – 21 Feb 2026
Uinversity Hall Gallery UMass Boston
Curated by Sam Toabe and Sarah McAvera.
14 Nov 2025 – 21 Feb 2026
Uinversity Hall Gallery UMass Boston
Curated by Sam Toabe and Sarah McAvera.
Insight into the Other is a group exhibition with artists: Ciara Finnegan, Sandra Johnston, Shiro Masuyama, Sharon Murphy, Sinéad O’Donnell, Peter Richards, Elvira Santamaría, and Una Walker
Do we find insight into ourselves in the artworks that we experience? Do we use them as a prompt to confirm our own values? Or, do we use them as proof of “otherness?” Has the meaning of “the other” changed in the current political and social climate? Do we use the concept of “the other” as a means of maintaining the status quo?
The selection of artworks for Insight into the Other will be drawn from the collection of the Golden Thread Gallery and focuses on those whose meanings change according to the time and space they are shown in. All blur boundaries around what they are and what they appear to be, or could be, based on its relationship to the experience of the viewer and vice versa. Some works will be restaged for the first time in many years, shown in alternative presentations that provoke the viewer into being part of the work, leading them to question what they are seeing and experiencing. The multitude of alternate readings undermine the stability of the viewing process and our sense of self and sense of the “other.”
The exhibition exchange will result in Insight into the Other at the University Hall Gallery curated by Golden Thread Gallery’s Co-Director Sarah McAvera in collaboration with our Gallery Director, Sam Toabe. This collaborative exchange will will overlap with a group exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast composed of studio art faculty, staff, and alumni from UMass Boston’s Art & Art History Department, opening in 2026.
Do we find insight into ourselves in the artworks that we experience? Do we use them as a prompt to confirm our own values? Or, do we use them as proof of “otherness?” Has the meaning of “the other” changed in the current political and social climate? Do we use the concept of “the other” as a means of maintaining the status quo?
The selection of artworks for Insight into the Other will be drawn from the collection of the Golden Thread Gallery and focuses on those whose meanings change according to the time and space they are shown in. All blur boundaries around what they are and what they appear to be, or could be, based on its relationship to the experience of the viewer and vice versa. Some works will be restaged for the first time in many years, shown in alternative presentations that provoke the viewer into being part of the work, leading them to question what they are seeing and experiencing. The multitude of alternate readings undermine the stability of the viewing process and our sense of self and sense of the “other.”
The exhibition exchange will result in Insight into the Other at the University Hall Gallery curated by Golden Thread Gallery’s Co-Director Sarah McAvera in collaboration with our Gallery Director, Sam Toabe. This collaborative exchange will will overlap with a group exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast composed of studio art faculty, staff, and alumni from UMass Boston’s Art & Art History Department, opening in 2026.
