"THE FEAR THAT SUCH THINGS ARE TRUE": Bowdoin College Museum of Art Presents New Work by Anna Tsouhlarakis

Brunswick, ME—October 26, 2026—This winter, Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA) presents the exhibition THE FEAR THAT SUCH THINGS ARE TRUE: New Work by Anna Tsouhlarakis, on view January 28 through August 15, 2027. Curated by Cassandra Mesick Braun, the exhibition brings together sixteen new sculpture and two-dimensional works by Anna Tsouhlarakis (born 1977) that moves through Navajo cultural taboo, feminine strength, and communal humor to forge new narratives of Indigenous feminine empowerment.

In works such as SHE DARES YOU TO STEAL HER HAIR and COYOTES RUN FROM HER, Tsouhlarakis draws on ancestral knowledge and lived experience to negotiate the tension between traditional ways of being and the contemporary world. Her work probes the edges of what is acceptable, absurd, and necessary—and claims that charged territory as ground for new storytelling. Across material and form, the work pulls from the past to press toward the future with force.

“I am interested in how humor exposes the absurdity of what we are taught to fear and challenges dominant narratives. At a time when truth is increasingly difficult to separate from fabrication, and fear shapes how we see one another, this work explores how ancestral knowledge, cultural continuity, and Indigenous women’s strength offer other ways of understanding the world and imagining the future,” said artist Anna Tsouhlarakis.

For Tsouhlarakis, presenting this work in an academic setting will encourage important conversations: “Showing this work at Bowdoin College creates an opportunity to bring these questions into a space where history, knowledge, and the ways we understand the world can be considered and challenged. I hope the work encourages viewers to question how certain narratives become accepted as truth, whose voices are given authority, and how fear can shape our understanding of people and cultures we may not fully know.” 

"It is incredibly exciting to support the creation of new work by Anna Tsouhlarakis and to host it here at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. As a specialist in Indigenous art, I have long admired Tsouhlarakis’s ability to confront the legacies of colonialism with unflinching clarity, boldness, and playfulness. These new artworks will encourage new conversations that foreground femininity, womanhood, and resilience with Tsouhlarakis’s trademark humor and clarity,” said Cassandra Mesick Braun, curator at the BCMA.

Braun adds, “As an institution, the BCMA is fundamentally invested in using artwork to tell stories that will appeal to a variety of visitors, including those that have been historically overlooked. The artist’s own commitment to using storytelling and myth to share Indigenous experiences will allow us to uphold this commitment while also sharing brand new work by an internationally-renowned artist and educator.”

Anna Tsouhlarakis works in sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, and MCA Denver, among others. She is included in the 2026 Whitney Biennial. Tsouhlarakis has completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Yaddo, and MacDowell, and was the Andrew W. Mellon Artist-in-Residence at Colorado College. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College with degrees in Native American Studies and Studio Art and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. She was awarded a 2021 Creative Capital Grant, a 2022 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and was a 2025 Smithsonian Artist Research. In the Spring of 2026, Tsouhlarakis was the Edgar Heap of Birds Family Artist in Residence at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Tsouhlarakis was the commencement speaker in May 2026 at Yale University School of Art.

THE FEAR THAT SUCH THINGS ARE TRUE is organized by the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and made possible with generous support from the Elizabeth B.G. Hamlin Fund. The exhibition will be on view January 28 through August 15, 2027. To celebrate the opening of the exhibition, Tsouhlarakis will give an artist’s talk on Thursday, January 28, 2027 at 5:00 p.m. in Beam Classroom, Visual Arts Center, followed by a reception in the Museum’s Pavilion. The BCMA is always open to the public free of charge, and all are welcome at these opening events. More information on related programming will be forthcoming on the Events page of our website.

Bowdoin College Museum of Art

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art is the cornerstone of the arts and culture at Bowdoin. One of the earliest collegiate art collections in the nation, it came into being through the 1811 bequest of James Bowdoin III of 70 European paintingsand a portfolio of 141 old master drawings. The collection has been expanded through the generosity of the Bowdoin family, alumni and friends, and now numbers more than 20,000 objects, including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and artifacts from prehistory to the present from civilizations around the world. www.bowdoin.edu