WESTPORT, CONN.- The Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut announces the opening of Michael Borders: Connecticut Industry, an expansive exhibition centered on the Connecticut-based artist’s monumental, multi-panel mural exploring the state’s history, landscape, industries, and communities. Part of the larger Looking for History exhibition, Borders’ show is on view from Thursday, August 13, until Sunday, November 15, 2026.
Composed of eight painted panels, each measuring five by ten feet, Connecticut Industry Mural offers a sweeping visual portrait of the state’s eight counties. Read from bottom to top, the mural unfolds as a layered narrative of Connecticut’s development—from early Indigenous presence and colonial settlement to industrial expansion and the technological ingenuity that transformed the state.
Borders’ process has been as expansive as the work itself. Over more than three years of research and more than two decades of painting, he visited historical societies and chambers of commerce throughout Connecticut, gathering the local histories, industries, landscapes, and individuals that inform the mural. Specific Indigenous leaders, settlers, workers, inventors, and industries appear throughout the composition, alongside waterwheels, pulleys, drills, ropes, oxen, pipes, boilers, and other forms associated with labor and production.
At first glance, the mural’s bold palette and dynamic forms may appear abstract. With sustained looking, however, its intricate details resolve into a richly populated historical portrait—one that connects Connecticut’s natural resources to human labor, technological invention, and the communities that shaped the state’s identity. A gallery guide and numbered panels will assist visitors in identifying selected figures, places, and references within the work.
The exhibition reflects the breadth of Borders’ five-decade career. Working across murals, illustration, and portraiture, he has created works for nightclubs, homes, cafeterias, elementary schools, universities, churches, institutions, and private individuals. His illustrations have appeared on record albums and CD covers, magazines, coloring books, and posters. His portrait subjects include ministers, judges, teachers, dancers, and people from communities across the social and cultural landscape.
Much of Borders’ career has been rooted in the Hartford area, where he has lived and worked for decades. A resident of Bloomfield, Connecticut, with his family for more than forty-five years, he has also lectured at Fisk University, Howard University, the University of Hartford, Trinity College, Southern Connecticut State University, the Slater Museum, and numerous elementary and secondary schools.
Exhibition programming includes a CORA Foundation Community Conversation with artist Michael Borders on Thursday, November 5, 2026, from 6–7pm, which will offer an opportunity to hear directly from Borders about his research, studio practice, and evolving relationship to Connecticut industry. The program is presented as part of the CORA Foundation’s commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue around art, history, and community.
