Lan Tuazon’s Matters of Consequence Activates the University Hall Atrium at University of Massachusetts, Boston
Presented by Arts on the Point with support from the Boston Public Art Triennial, the installation invites the university community to gather, reflect, and program the space over a year-long exhibition.
March 23, 2026 — To help envision what happens when we bring private reflection into public space, artist Lan Tuazon presents Matters of Consequence (2025), a participatory public artwork installed in the University Hall Atrium at the University of Massachusetts Boston through April 2027. Matters of Consequence is presented by Arts on the Point at the University of Massachusetts Boston and is proudly supported by the Boston Public Art Triennial.
A free public opening celebration will take place on Thursday, March 26, from 3–5 pm in the University Hall Atrium. This special opening celebration will feature artist Lan Tuazon in attendance, sharing reflections on the sculpture and its ideas. Guests will also experience one of the many ways the work can be activated through civic participation, in the form of a gift exchange.
Located within the university’s bustling University Hall atrium, Matters of Consequence asks visitors how art can help us think about our shared survival, environment, and care for one another. Inspired by a 15th-century painting of a studiolo—a room that functions as both a private study and a public studio—Tuazon reimagines the University Hall Atrium as a place for the UMass Boston community to gather for events, learning, and exchange.
Bringing this work to UMass is critical for the University, said Sam Toabe, Gallery Director of the University Hall Gallery and Director of Arts on the Point. “Collaborating with Lan Tuazon and the Boston Public Art Triennial brings students and the broader UMass Boston community together through exchange, play, and critical responses to contemporary social, cultural, and ecological questions. We’re especially excited to open the site to student activation through creative proposals that will help us learn and grow together. Matters of Consequence is a powerful example of art that is alive and responsive to its community, and I look forward to seeing what our students imagine and offer back.”
Throughout the year-long exhibition, the artist invites UMass students, faculty, and alumni to propose events and public programs that activate the sculpture as a platform for culture and collective energy. Visitors are encouraged to use the space in their own ways whether through student-led programming, informal gatherings, or quiet study to foster meaningful connections.
“I’m excited to see how students use the sculpture and curious about the kinds of belonging we might create together through it,” Tuazon said.
The installation’s materials embody the cyclical nature of reuse and transformation. Constructed from discarded and repurposed elements—including steel, custom sheet-pressed plastic, and donated community property—the work reflects the potential for materials to take on new life cycles.
Originally curated by Pedro Alonzo as part of Triennial 2025: The Exchange, the city’s first public art exhibition, Matters of Consequence is represented and relocated inside. This presentation marks the second collaboration in the past year between the Boston Public Art Triennial and Arts on the Point. Speaking about the partnership, Boston Public Art Triennial Executive Director Kate Gilbert said, “We’re proud to continue building a meaningful relationship with Arts on the Point and the University of Massachusetts Boston. Collaborations like this allow us to bring ambitious contemporary public art to new audiences and create opportunities for dialogue, learning, and exchange within the UMass community.”
Matters of Consequence is visible everyday, 7am–10pm at University Hall Atrium,100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125.
About Lan Tuazon: Lan Tuazon lives and works in Chicago, where she is an Associate Professor of Sculpture at the School of Art Institute in Chicago. Tuazon is a Rome Prize Fellow in Terra Foundation Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2024). She has received solo presentations at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago (2021); Visual Arts Center, University of Texas at Austin (2018); Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York (2012); and Brooklyn Museum, New York (2011). She has participated in group exhibitions at venues that include the 8th Floor Rubin Foundation, New York (2015); Bucharest Biennale, Romania (2010); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2007); Sculpture Center, New York (2007); and Artists Space, New York (2006). Tuazon was awarded residencies and fellowships at the American Academy in Rome (2024); the Headlands Art Center, Sausalito, CA (2013); Civitella Ranieri, Umbertide, Italy (2012); and Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart (2009). She earned an MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT (2002) and a BA from The Cooper Union, New York (1999). She participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program (2003).
About Boston Public Art Triennial: Boston Public Art Triennial is the city’s first and only public art organization dedicated to supporting artists and communities in bold, contemporary, public art. The Triennial’s mission is to foster relationships between artists and the public to create bold public art experiences that open minds, conversations, and spaces across Boston, resulting in a more open, equitable, and vibrant city.
About Arts on the Point: Arts on the Point is UMass Boston’s revolving public art program established in 1997 by Professor Emeritus Paul Tucker. Over the course of thirty years, world class artworks have been lent to the university and made accessible to students and the surrounding community. Focusing on postmodern and contemporary sculpture, Tucker’s curatorial projects for AoP have featured artworks from the likes of Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Willem de Kooning, Dennis Oppenheim, Luis Jiménez, Sheila Pepe, William Tucker, and Mark di Suvero, among others. Works were selected for their quality, significance, and relationship to the site. During their time on campus, artworks aided in the cultivation of the identity and profile of UMass Boston as a top tier research institution. Paul Tucker retired from UMass Boston in 2012, and since 2017 the program has been led by Gallery Director Sam Toabe. Established as a free, public sculpture park here at UMass Boston’s campus on Columbia Point, it has since developed to include large-scale sculptures, socially engaged artworks, temporary installations, exhibitions, and events. Arts on the Point continues to engage students, faculty, and staff, as well as local communities, through collaborations and free public programs.
Lead Image: Installation view, Matters of Consequence, 2026. Photo credit: Ryan C McMahon
Media Contact: Marguerite Wynter, mwynter@thetriennial.org
