In Dialogue: Iyaba Ibo Mandigo/Frank Foster Post

Opening January 31st, 2026 | 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Bridgeport, January 2026––URSA Gallery is proud to present In Dialogue: Iyaba Ibo Mandigo/Frank Foster Post, a duo exhibition bringing together two Connecticut legends whose practices have shaped the region’s cultural landscape. Opening January 31, the show places their work in direct conversation—distinct art historical languages meeting around shared explorations of identity, rhythm, memory, and humanity.

Iyaba Ibo Mandingo moves fluidly between painting, performance, and poetry. His visual practice carries the same urgency and lyricism that define his writing and stage work—layered, symbolic, and deeply rooted in lived experience. In the present exhibition, Mandigo’s paintings act as vessels of history and presence, drawing on pattern, figure, and gesture to confront themes of ancestry, displacement, and resilience.

The paintings of Frank Foster Post are immediately recognizable: bold, cartoon-like figures rendered in bright color and heavy black outlines. Influenced by music—particularly the blues—and cinematic soundtracks, Post’s characters function as metaphors for human emotion and behavior. Playful on the surface, his work carries an undercurrent of solitude and introspection, using humor and rhythm to explore vulnerability and tension.

In Dialogue is less about contrast and more about interplay. The exhibition highlights how two artists working from different traditions and developing along separate trajectories can arrive at similar questions—how we see ourselves, how we perform identity, and how art translates feeling into form. For more information on URSA, visit ursabpt.com or contact Cris Dam at cristobal.dam@gmail.com