Sculpture by Leilah Babirye from Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki) at the ICA Boston

Institute of Contemporary Art / BostonSeaport

Leilah Babirye: Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki)

Now showing27 August 2026 – 18 January 2027$20

The Ugandan-born artist premieres new ceramic and wood sculptures staging a queer wedding, each figure cast as bride, groom or guest, watched over by charred-wood ancestors.

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On now All of October 2026

In Tuli Mukwano (We Are in Love) III, two glazed ceramic lovers lean in to brush cheeks. One wears bicycle inner tubes coiled into a bun, the other a coarse braid. They are guests at the wedding Leilah Babirye built for the ICA.

The whole party is here: bride, groom, ring bearer, flower girl, bridesmaids and groomsmen, new ceramic and wood figures crowned with bicycle chains and gears. The debris is deliberate: in Uganda, which Babirye fled after being outed as gay, the slur abasiyazi means a kind of rubbish. Towering charred-wood ancestors surround the party, and the pedestals mix with visitor seating, so you sit among the guests with the newlyweds at the centre. It's the one wedding this year with no seating chart and no registry.

The World of Interiors called it "a jubilant ode to queer gathering". It's in the Fotene Demoulas Gallery, included with $20 admission, free Thursdays 5 to 9 pm with an advance ticket. Babirye talks with curator Ruth Erickson on 12 November.

Editor's pick

New ceramic and wood sculptures by the Ugandan-born artist stage a queer wedding, each figure cast as bride, groom or guest, with charred-wood ancestors watching over the party. A wedding you can attend without buying a present.

Look for

Tuli Mukwano (We Are in Love) III
Two ceramic busts in earthy brown and green glazes brush cheeks, one with an inner-tube bun, the other with a coarse braid and puckered lips.
The newlyweds at the centre
The couple stands in the middle of the gallery, with the wedding party on pedestals mixed in among the visitor seats.
The charred-wood elders
Towering figures in blackened wood, the aunties, uncles and ancestors who have filled Babirye's work from the start, surround the wedding party.
The bicycle-part regalia
Look for metal gears and bicycle chains reworked into headdresses and jewellery, and rubber inner tubes braided into tresses.