You can contact us at: info@massimadi.ca
Presented by the Massimadi Foundation
In collaboration with Nigra Iuventa and
the Côte-des-Neiges Cultural Centre
Curator: Dorothy Mombrun
The artists
Tolu Ayoka (they/them) is a Nigerian-British visual artist and illustrator based in Vancouver. Their work serves as an ode to their inner child through otherworldly explorations of Black and West African identities in alternative spaces. Guided by muses from life and beyond, they invite audiences into supernatural realms of surrealism, Afrocentrism, and Black queer culture—bridging personal history with collective experience.
Tuza Dulcinée is a visual artist, creative director, and archivist born in Kigali, Rwanda, and based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). Her work sits at the intersection of fine art photography, myth, and liberation theory, reimagining Black interiority as a space of belonging, tenderness, and possibility. Grounded in Ubuntu philosophy and a love ethic, she approaches each body of work as an offering to a longer visual memory.
Nyabingi was the daughter of Gihanda, a deity of the Great Lakes region of East Africa. Where her father was exacting, she was approached for abundance, love, comfort, and favourable outcomes; an intercessor between the divine and the immediate needs of the living. Her spirit was understood as one that moved between abagirwa, chosen vessels who spoke on her behalf.
Nyabingi and the Nyabinghi(s) traces the continuity of Nyabingi across three distinct moments in history: her original East African context; the royal women whose wrongful deaths became sites of her amplification and return; and the Nyabinghi tradition of Jamaica, where her name was carried into Rastafarian spiritual and ceremonial practice, becoming drumbeat, ritual, and invocation. The series asks what it means for a spirit to remain legible across centuries and continents; how she is recognized, how she is called, and what she is being asked for.
Odera Igbokwe (they/them) is a Nigerian painter, illustrator, and movement artist based on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver). Their work explores storytelling through Afro-diasporic spiritualism, Black resilience, and embodied transformation. Weaving together ancient narratives and Afrofuturist visions, they create gateways to healing from collective and generational traumas.
Cassi Camille (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, sculptor, and ceramist based in Montreal. Working primarily with clay, textiles, wood, and metal, her practice is rooted in her Haitian and Québécois heritage. Through reliefs and figurative forms, she explores ancestry, resilience, and the cyclical nature of life—examining how history manifests in our bodies through gestures of dance and movement.
Kadine Lindsay (they/them) is an illustrator based in Kingston, Jamaica, and a graduate of OCAD University. Their work bridges late '90s and early 2000s aesthetics with the cultural textures of their Jamaican upbringing. Through surrealist portrayals of Black Caribbean life, they explore the intersections of gender, sexuality, and Jamaicanness—disrupting colonial legacies while documenting alternative subcultures, particularly within dancehall
The curator
Dorothy Mombrun (they/she) is a Montreal-based artist, curator, and cultural advocate whose work empowers marginalized communities through visual storytelling and collaborative art. Since 2016, their practice—spanning photography, curation, and education—has celebrated Black women and femmes through bold colour and light. They have curated exhibitions and cultural events including Aynalem: l’Oeil du Monde (2022), Be Yourself (2023–2024), Soulful Embrace: Ode to love (2024), and Lakou en Ekzil (2025), and have facilitated art and entrepreneurship workshops since 2019 with organizations like Hoodstock Montreal and the Ville de Montréal. A photo editor, art director, and podcast co-host, Mombrun holds a background in journalism and curatorial studies from Concordia University. Their work sits at the intersection of art, community, and activism, championing inclusive futures and decolonized storytelling.
Le/The Sanctum
Step inside. You are welcome here.
This sanctum belongs to you. To me. To us. It is an archetype built from collective memory.
For the alt kid who found herself in a Paramore song when nowhere else made sense.
For the awkward teen who kept journals under her bed,
For the curious reader who underlined every juicy paragraph in her favourite books,
For the amateur DJ who spent hours curating playlists for a friend.
For the kid who cut out magazine pictures of dark-skinned models because she needed proof of her own beauty,
For the one who stayed up late on Tumblr finding other weird girls across the world
This goes out to all the Young Black femmes who built a sanctuary in the only space they could control: their bedroom.
Welcome to the Sanctum. Make yourself at home.
What is The Sanctum?
The Sanctum is a group exhibition that functions as a living archive. It invites visitors into a collectively crafted place of solace. The Sanctum is an intimate, inclusive, and deeply personal sanctuary built by Black femmes, for Black femmes, and open to all who seek to understand.
The exhibition explores what it feels like for a Black femme to confront young adulthood, discover one’s identity, and navigate relational transformations. When sitting at the intersection of Blackness, queerness, and femmehood, the journey of becoming carries its own distinct shapes, textures, sounds, and reflections. Through works presented alongside a garden of cultural and ancestral influences, the exhibition honours that specificity while inviting broader recognition.
At its heart, The Sanctum argues that carefully crafting our personal space and media landscape ( what we watch, read, and listen to) is essential for preserving our mental health, figuring out who we are, and shaping the world around us.
By putting individuality, alternative culture(s), and self-reflection front and center, the exhibition challenges and corrects the one-size-fits-all stories usually told about Black youth. It creates a vital space of recognition, validation, and belonging for Black femmes, and for anyone who has ever built a sanctuary of their own.
* The term "femme" originates from the anglophone queer (LGBTQIA2S+) community. It refers to any person, regardless of their gender identity, who embraces a feminine aesthetic, attitudes, or presentation, while subverting traditional gender and sexuality societal codes.*
The media corner
“I've been a music fiend since I was four. Browsing through my parents' collection, I always wanted one of my own.
At fourteen, I found a thrift store wall of $2 CDs and $3 vinyls. It was one of the first times I felt a real sense of agency. Of Control. I spent an hour looking through them. I walked home with Blaque's self-titled album.
I didn't know I was embarking on a beautiful, everlasting sonic journey.
Most of these were collected over hours in dusty thrift stores or at curated used books stores like Librairie L’Échange. Few were full price because I couldn't afford it.
I started collecting before I even owned a CD player. It felt like an investment on myself; like a promise that one day, in my own space, I'd finally listen to the soundtrack I'd been curating all along.
Today, at almost 26, I get to invite people over for dinner and show off my collection with a great sense of pride. Young Domo knew what they were doing, because I’m still vibing to these songs on the regular.” - Dorothy Mombrun
Thanks
Artistes: Tolu Ayoka, Odera Igbokwe, Tuza D., Kadine Lindsay, Cassi Camille for trusting us with your work and stories.
Fondation Massi Madi for believing in the project, funding, producing and promoting it.
Diane Gistal, founder and executive director of Nigra Iuventa, for her relentless support, mentorship and guidance for this project and beyond
The entire team of Maison de la culture Côte-des-neiges: Robert Dufour, Colin Earp-Lavergne, Jorge Daniel Sarrin Sarrin, Samuel Alie, Mélanie Terrière for welcoming this project and supporting all the technical logistics of the exhibition
My co-conspirators and teammates, Anthony Ioannou, Devon Reid and Noelle Michetti, for making the first version of this project come to life during our curatorial studies program
ARTH 678 classmates for your additional insights on the full-scale form of the project.
Professor Didier Morelli and Dominique Fontaine, FOFA and curatorial lab technician Joshua Jensen, for your guidance during my studies.
My friends: Mc Joë Poteau, Christian Romeo Kamgue, Rebecca Tenna, Joys Sekpon and Chloe Nyiligira for helping during sourcing and mounting days <3
Espace Dézòd: For hosting us during the donation days
Librairie L’Échange: for the musical station
