For the first time, the life and work of Jamaica-born artist Mavis Pusey (1928-2019) will be fully explored in a major museum survey. Opening July 2025, ICA Philadelphia presents Mavis Pusey: Mobile Images, an extensive retrospective spanning the prolific artist’s 50-year career. Featuring more than 60 works – including paintings, drawings, and prints – as well as archival materials, the exhibition explores the influences that led Pusey to develop her unique visual language through experimentation with geometric abstraction. Tracing her journey from Jamaica to New York, London, Paris, Philadelphia, and Virginia, Mobile Images demonstrates the evolution of Pusey’s work throughout her life, and offers a long-overdue reexamination of her impact on American abstraction and beyond.

On view July 12 through December 7, 2025, Mavis Pusey: Mobile Images is curated by Hallie Ringle, Interim Director and Daniel and Brett Sundheim Chief Curator of the ICA Philadelphia, with Kiki Teshome, Curatorial Assistant at the Studio Museum in Harlem, where it will travel in Spring 2027. The exhibition is supported by extensive research and preservation initiatives conducted in partnership with the Getty Research Institute and Getty Conservation Institute with significant support from the Mellon Foundation. Following the exhibition opening, ICA will host a two-day symposium, bringing together scholars, artists, community leaders, and the public to discuss Pusey’s legacy and the continued relevance of her work today. Dates and details will be announced at a later date.

“It has been a monumental and collaborative process to bring this project to fruition. Culminating over a decade of partnership, working initially with the artist herself and collaborating alongside Thelma Golden and the Studio Museum, the exhibition marks the first time that Pusey’s work will be on view publicly in a comprehensive manner,” remarks Ringle. “Our goal is to enable audiences to appreciate the breadth and evolution of Pusey’s work within a deeply researched framework, and for the public, scholars, and artists alike to be able to draw connections between her work and key art historical narratives and contemporary practices.”

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