In the upcoming exhibition, Kelly Taylor Mitchell: mouth wide open, the eponymous artist presents deeply spiritual works inspired by her travels to the city of Salvador, Brazil as a School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA at Tufts) Traveling Fellow. Through her work, Mitchell connects her ongoing project of mapping diverse cultural and familial connections across the American South and the Caribbean with powerful Candomblé spiritual traditions. The exhibition will be on view from November 22, 2025–April 26, 2026 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), in the Edward Linde Gallery (Gallery 168).
Located in northeast Brazil in the region of Bahia, Salvador is home to one of the largest populations of active maroon or “quilombo” communities. These communities are descendants of formerly enslaved people who self-emancipated and lived autonomously. The city is now renowned as a center of African diasporic culture. Mitchell’s research journey to Brazil was sponsored by an SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellowship.
While in Salvador, Mitchell witnessed ever-evolving Afro-syncretic spiritual traditions, practiced in Brazil and beyond, in which elements of West African Yoruban rites and Catholicism have fused, forming a syncretic religion called Candomblé. She attended the annual festival of Iemanjá (also known as Yemayá, among other names) celebrating Yoruban “orisha” (goddess) of the sea. There, she participated in processions and offerings, and observed religious artworks that were both utilitarian and mystical.
The works in this exhibition are inspired by the powerful, ocean-oriented talismanic objects and ritual performances the artist was invited to observe while in Brazil. They channel communication between her own forebears, non-biological kin, and greater divinities, acting as sites of reunion between the artist and figures in her own familial and cultural pantheon. While their true activation only occurs in private, they help viewers to imagine performing similar communions of our own.
The exhibition’s title, “mouth wide open,” indicates the awe such encounters inspired in the artist, while also referencing artist Romare Bearden’s conception of the Black artist as “a whale swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs.”
Mitchell’s exhibition is part of a long-standing collaboration between SMFA at Tufts and the MFA facilitated through the Tufts University Art Galleries. Through this collaboration, gallery space is dedicated to the work of SMFA at Tufts students or alumni each year. An exhibit last winter featured the works of current and recently graduated BFA students and was co-curated by Tufts graduate students in the department of Art History. The collaboration strengthens the relationship between the Museum and SMFA at Tufts, dating to SMFA’s 1876 founding, and spotlights the work of emerging artists.
The SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellowships provide critical early-career support for alumni, allowing them to further develop and inform their practice. Selected by a rotating jury, Traveling Fellows receive up to $10,000 to pursue travel and research related to their art practice. The application process is open to alumni working in any contemporary visual art discipline.
Mitchell received her BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2015. She also holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her first solo exhibition at the MFA, “mouth wide open” is supported by SMFA at Tufts and Tufts University Art Galleries.
Mitchell lives and works between Atlanta and San Juan. She is an assistant professor of Art and Visual Culture at Spelman College.
She was named an SMFA at Tufts Traveling Fellow in 2022.
A Tradition of Supporting Emerging Artists
In 1894, James William Paige left a bequest of $30,000 to SMFA at Tufts—then called the “Museum School”—to establish a travel fund. Income was to be used to send SMFA students to Europe, where they would study art for a period of two years.
By 1899, the first Traveling Scholar, Mary Brewster Hazelton, sailed to Europe. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, recipients typically traveled to Paris, Rome or Florence. Today, SMFA Traveling Fellows journey across the globe.
Notable past winners of the fellowships include Nan Goldin (Dip ’77), Ellen Gallagher (Dip ’92), Omer Fast, (A95 BFA/BA), and Mike and Doug Starn (Dip ’84), as well as more recent graduates such as Evelyn Rydz, (AG05 MFA), Gonzalo Fuenmayor, (AG04 MFA), and Daniela Rivera, (AG06 MFA).
The Traveling Fellowships is one of many programs at SMFA at Tufts that support artists in every stage of their careers. For more information, visit https://smfa.tufts.edu/.
For hours and more information about the MFA, visit mfa.org.