Coumba Samba: Stars and Stripes

Coumba Samba’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States transforms the Whitney Museum’s first-floor lobby gallery into a focused installation about nuclear power, resource extraction and the systems behind national symbols. Samba uses the geometric forms and bold colors of modernist abstraction in sculptures modeled after depleted-uranium shells, painted with colors drawn from the flags of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Namibia, Niger and the United States. The work connects Cold War uranium mining, colonial extraction, environmental harm and the global military-industrial complex, asking viewers to look beyond the familiar graphics of flags to the histories they can conceal. The exhibition is organized by guest curator Rujeko Hockley with curatorial assistant Antonia Pocock and is on view September 19, 2026 through January 18, 2027. It is a compact, single-gallery installation on Floor 1 at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street. Museum admission and current hours are controlled by the Whitney. This submission is from Stumblday, an independent visitor guide, not the artist or museum. Official exhibition information: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/coumba-samba . Visitor guide: https://stumblday.com/events/coumba-samba-stars-and-stripes-whitney-museum-of-american-art .