Register now! Spring semester starts January 12.
Metro State student services are available remotely/virtually December 29–31, and January 2. Campus buildings, except for the Library and Learning Center, will be closed during this time. The university will be fully closed with no service on Thursday, January 1 for the New Years holiday. We hope you enjoy your winter break!
Photo of Gordon Parks authorized for use by the Gordon Parks Foundation, New York CIty, NY.
The Gordon Parks Gallery ascribes to a multi-faceted mission: to support the arts curriculum and cultural activities of Metropolitan State University and to preserve the legacy of the 20th century multimedia artist Gordon Parks.
As an academic venue, the gallery is committed to providing educational opportunities for adult learners through internships, student exhibitions and related programming. As a civic venue, the gallery is dedicated to exposing Minnesotans to the life and work of Gordon Parks through youth and community outreach programs.
Gordon Parks Gallery is dedicated to showing the work of various subjects, media, forms and content by diverse artists, including emerging and established artists of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
If you’re interested in exhibiting at The Gordon Parks Gallery, please reach out to Dr. Megan Arney Johnston, gallery director, at megan.johnston@metrostate.edu to receive details about the submission process.
Metro State University’s Gordon Parks Gallery is proud to present Favorable Conditions: New Work by Eyenga Bokamba, a vibrant and emotionally resonant exhibition curated by Minneapolis-based independent curator and arts leader Esther Callahan.
Favorable Conditions features a new body of work by multidisciplinary artist Eyenga Bokamba, whose practice merges Abstract Expressionism with the immersive, conceptual strategies of installation art. Working through a visual language centered on color, gesture, and emotional resonance, Bokamba explores the relationship between joy, embodiment, and the conditions—internal and external—that allow individuals and communities to flourish.
Curator Esther Callahan positions this exhibition as an exploration of joy as a revolutionary act. Through chromatic intensity, layered mark-making, and abstract sculpture, Bokamba’s newest works create a contemplative space where viewers are invited to sense, feel, and recognize themselves as sovereign and whole. The exhibition underscores how color can nurture connection, awaken emotional memory, and serve as a site of collective imagining.
Eyenga Bokamba is a visual artist and designer who is most drawn to abstraction as a means of expressing the complexity of identity, politics, and her understanding of the world. Her work investigates the emotive potential of color, texture, and spatial experience. Her paintings and installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Bokamba’s practice is deeply rooted in creating work that advances understanding and expands the possibilities of empathy, belonging, and shared humanity.