On view: April 26—July 19, 2025

Through an interdisciplinary practice that includes experimental films, Luis Arnías explores his experience as an immigrant person of Afro-Caribbean descent living in America, examining the connections between his own life and Black and African diasporic consciousness. Originally from Venezuela, Arnías currently lives and works in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. He uses 16mm film to visualize everyday life, investigating the conceptual layers of neighborhood, wilderness, borders, and boundaries through the lens of race, immigration, and identity. Subjects range from his home life, where his family participates in the making of his films, to contested social spaces for communities of color in Boston, to street life in Brazil, Senegal, Venezuela, and elsewhere. 

The solo exhibition Slow Loops presents two recent films by Arnías, Bisagras (2024) and Noise Cloud (work in progress), in addition to sculpture and drawings that illuminate the films’ thematic connections. Bisagras, is an impressionistic experience of Arnías’s visits to the House of Slaves in Gorée Island, Senegal, and the port of Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, major sites of the transatlantic slave trade where the artist imagines his ancestors’ history. Noise Cloud is an experimental film that Arnías started during the pandemic, finding inspiration in the shared spaces of public parks and how they became heightened grounds for protest, partying, and leisure across racial lines in a time of crisis. The two films come together in his enduring study of Black life in all of its exuberance and expansiveness, as well as the slow and ongoing effects of structural racism, colonization, and the slave trade across locations, contexts, and time.

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This exhibition is supported in part by Wagner Foundation. ‘Slow Loops: Luis Arnías’ was first shown at Wagner Foundation between October 11, 2024–March 28, 2025. It was organized by Abigail Satinsky, Program Officer & Curator, Arts & Culture. The BCA Mills Gallery presentation is coordinated by BCA Visual Arts Team.

Opening Reception 

Friday, May 2, 2025 | 6–9 PM

BCA Mills Gallery, 551 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02116

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Performance Detonada (luna llena) by Dorian Wood

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 | 6–8 PM

BCA Mills Gallery | Co-organized with Boston Art Review

Artist Dorian Wood will perform in the Mills Gallery in the context of the exhibition Slow Loops by Luis Arnías. Wood and Arnías —recently brought into conversation through a collaboration for Boston Art Review— have been exploring the intersections of their practices. The full original conversation between them touches on intuition, liberation, and the art of refusing structure, and can be read in Issue 14 of Boston Art Review. Join us for an embodied iteration of this ongoing dialogue. 

The performance Detonada (luna llena) interweaves Dorian Wood’s fascination with Central and South American folk music and her fetishization of kindness. Using her voice, her body and her absorption of all available energy, Wood invites attendees to participate in a communal detonation of presumptions, prejudices and premise. This is Wood’s debut performance in Boston, her new hometown.

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Kite-making Workshop for Families

Saturday, July 12, 2025 | 1–3 PM 

BCA Mills Gallery | With Don McCasland from the Blue Hill Observatory & Science Center

Join us at the Mills Gallery to build and decorate your very own Frustrationless Flyer kite!

As families work together to construct their kites, participants will explore why specific materials are used for different parts and discover how design affects flight. You’ll also learn about the important role kites have played in collecting weather data throughout the Blue Hill Observatory’s history. Perfect for kids of all ages. 

Each RSVP confirms materials to build 1 (one) kite. Each kite can be built by a max of 2 people (ideally a minor and an adult).

Luis Arnías is a filmmaker from Venezuela who currently lives and works in Boston, MA. In 2009, he completed the diploma program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and in 2020 he received his Masters in Film/Video from Milton Avery Graduate School at Bard College. He has screened at New York Film Festival, TIFF, Punto de Vista, Berlin Critics’ Week (Woche Der Kritik) and BlackStar Film Festival. He was a Fellow at The Film Study Center at Harvard University, the recipient of the Herb Alpert/MacDowell Fellowship 2022 and most recently 2023 Boston Artadia Awardee.