University Galleries
A glass portrait, in which a golden face is surrounded by flowers of varying shades of blue, green, and brown. The eyes and lips of the face are closed. The artwork is displayed on a dusty, rust-pink wall.

Layo Bright: Invasive Blooms

Layo Bright: Invasive Blooms

Kasser Theater Lobby
February 1 – May 4, 2025

Bright explores themes of time, feminism, migration, and the African diaspora. Her practice employs blown, fused, and cast glass processes, along with textiles, wood, and ceramics, to engage ideas about individual and community identity.

The exhibition features recent and new works, including the debut of an hourglass sculpture symbolizing the passage of time and Bloom portraits, a collaborative project with the Montclair State University community.

Bright’s Bloom series celebrates resilience and identity, created through intricate glass portraits of women from her community. These works pair cast face molds with individually crafted glass flowers, chosen for their symbolic connection to migration and cultural narratives. For Invasive Blooms, the artist invited Montclair students, faculty, and staff to share their migration stories. These stories have been incorporated into the works, making each piece a deeply personal and community-centered creation.

Layo Bright’s practice is rooted in creating works that encourage reflection, dialogue, and a sense of shared humanity. Invasive Blooms is an invitation to engage with the beauty and complexity of migration, heritage, and the stories that shape us all.

Press Release
Library Guide
Schedule A Group Visit

Artist Reception

  • Tuesday, February 4, 5 – 7 p.m.
  • Meet the artist at the opening reception of Layo Bright in the Alexander Kasser Theater lobby.
  • Remarks by the artist Layo Bright and Director Megan C. Austin at 6 p.m
  • Admission is free and open to the public
  • We believe in making our events accessible and inclusive for everyone in our community. If you require accommodations or have questions about accessibility, please don’t hesitate to contact the University Galleries at galleries@muurausahvenlampi.com or 973-655-3382. We want to ensure that every participant attending our programs can engage fully without barriers or limitations.
Register here
Upcoming Events

View our complete programming schedule on Eventbrite.

Art Forum

  • Monday, February 10, 5:20 p.m.
  • Calcia Hall 135
  • Art Forum is a speaker series featuring artists, designers, art historians, curators, and art critics from around the world presenting their work and ideas in an open forum, hosted by the Department of Art & Design. Layo Bright will discuss her latest work in the exhibition Invasive Blooms.
  • Admission is free and open to the public
Explore exclusive content on our digital guide

Download our free digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app created by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Hear insights from the curator and artist, and explore responses from students, faculty, and community members through audio, photo and video features.

About the Artist


Portrait of a woman with long black hair. Behind her are bright glass flowers, ranging in varying shades of pinks and purples.

Layo Bright (b. 1991 in Lagos, Nigeria; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York) received a law degree from Babcock University in 2014 and an MFA from the Parsons School of Design in 2018. She has exhibited her work at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgewood, CT; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA; MICA’s Meyerhoff Gallery, Baltimore, MD; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, NY; and Halsey Mckay Gallery, East Hampton, NY.