On Monday, February 9, 2026, the McCoy opens its newest exhibit: Cosmic Threads. This show brings together work by three artists from the surrounding Boston-area—Funlola Coker, Erin Genia, and Maria Molteni—in an exhibition that reimagines humanity’s relationship to the cosmos beyond dominant narratives of technological progress and colonial expansion. Rather than positioning space as a frontier to be conquered, the works presented here approach the universe as a living network of relationships, where all human and non-human matter is deeply interconnected.
Across many mediums and practices, the artists in Cosmic Threads engage the cosmos as a site of reflection, memory, and possibility. Their works move fluidly across time and scale, weaving together personal, cultural, spiritual, mythical, and historical references. These layered perspectives invite viewers to consider how knowledge is shaped not only by scientific observation, but also by inherited stories, belief systems, and embodied experience.
The exhibition draws from spiritual traditions rooted in Yoruba, Dakota, and syncretic Catholic lineages, situating cosmic inquiry within ancestral frameworks that understand the universe as relational rather than extractive. In this context, stars, celestial bodies, and unseen forces are not distant abstractions, but active participants in a shared continuum of life. The works reach into deep time, collapsing distinctions between past, present, and future to propose alternative ways of understanding existence—ways grounded in reciprocity, care, and interdependence.
Moving between the vast and the microscopic, Cosmic Threads asks viewers to reconsider their place within the universe. The exhibition resists linear narratives of progress, instead offering cyclical and interconnected models that emphasize balance, coexistence, and responsibility across systems. In doing so, it opens space for reflection on how cosmologies—both ancient and contemporary—shape our relationships to land, community, and one another.
Curated by Boston-based artist and Merrimack adjunct lecturer Megan Hyde in collaboration with the artists, Cosmic Threads foregrounds dialogue, shared inquiry, and collective imagination. Together, the works form a constellation of perspectives that invite viewers to look outward and inward with renewed attention to the threads that bind all things.
The Merrimack community is invited to celebrate the opening of Cosmic Threads with a reception on Friday, February 13, at the McCoy Gallery starting at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.
