Mai's journey across the UK concludes in a showstopping exhibition at The Box

Touring for the first time since it was saved for the nation in 2023, Portrait of Mai by Sir Joshua Reynolds (c.1776) will travel to The Box, Plymouth from 14 February-14 June 2026, where it will take centre stage in a large-scale immersive exhibition.

Displayed across four gallery spaces, the show will re-examine what is generally considered to be Reynolds’ finest work within the context of Plymouth’s local and global histories. Mai’s portrait will be displayed alongside paintings, etchings, watercolours and ethnographic objects from both The Box and a range of national collections. Together they will build a picture of early encounters between Europeans and South Pacific Island peoples from different perspectives: inviting visitors to look and then look again.

Formerly known as 'Omai' in England, Mai (c.1753-1779) travelled between Ra‘iātea (French Polynesia) and England as part of Captain James Cook's second and third voyages, both of which departed from Plymouth. He was in Britain from 1774-1776 and it was during this time that Plympton-born Reynolds painted his celebrated work which was jointly acquired by The Getty and National Portrait Gallery for £50m in 2023.

The painting will be shown alongside depictions of many of the key players behind Britain’s seafaring expansion in the 1700s, including Cook, Joseph Banks and The Earl of Sandwich. A portrait of Captain Tobias Furneaux, the man who was responsible for bringing Mai to Britain and painted by Reynolds’ assistant James Northcote (1746-1831), will also be publicly displayed for the first time.

Journeys with Mai will also include a series of watercolours by a fellow native of Ra‘iātea named Tupaia, who joined Cook’s onward journey on HMS Endeavour from Tahiti in 1769 as an interpreter, guide and cultural advisor. On loan from the British Library, they will present a reading of early cultural encounters and Pacific Island peoples from a different perspective.

Bringing the sights and sounds of Tahiti to life, a new soundscape by Tahitian artist Hinatea Columbani will record the making of tapa, the highly valued cloth made by Pacific Islanders from tree bark which Mai is pictured wearing.

To further explore the complexities of cultural identity, Journeys with Mai will include New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana’s monumental video work In Pursuit of Venus (infected) – the first time it has been shown outside of London in the UK. In it, Reihana employs 21st century digital technologies to animate an historic 19th century French wallpaper with the sights and sounds of dance and cultural ceremonies, populated by a myriad of people drawn from across the Pacific and set against a utopian Tahitian landscape.

A new commission by Devon-based artist Mohini Chandra will respond directly to the themes of the exhibition. Expedition into a Volcano considers the idealised landscape suggested in Portrait of Mai and how notions of a pacific ‘paradise’ have entered our collective consciousness over the last 250 years. Presented as a single room moving image and audio experience, the work uses archival film from The Box’s archives combined with contemporary footage shot around Mount Edgcumbe, in nearby Cornwall.

New research into Mai’s time in Plymouth in the late 1770s, and the city’s key role in early encounters between people from Europe and the South Pacific will also form part of the exhibition and utilise archival materials from The Box. A newly commissioned animation for schools will explore this story and support curriculum topics such as migration, empire, and the transatlantic slave trade.

Victoria Pomery, CEO at The Box said:

A programme of events and activities inspired by the exhibition will culminate with a Youth Summit in Plymouth on 6 June 2026 where young people who have been working with the Journeys with Mai national partnership venues will all come together. This gathering will offer opportunities for them to share their creative work, explore shared themes, and imagine future possibilities.

Journeys with Mai is a national partnership project led by the National Portrait Gallery, Bradford District Museums and Galleries, the Fitzwilliam Museum, in collaboration with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge and The Box, Plymouth. The project is generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and other supporters.

Image credits:
NPG 7153. Portrait of Mai (Omai) (detail), Sir Joshua Reynolds c 1776 (detail). Oil on canvas; 236 x 145.5cm. Image courtesy of National Portrait Gallery, London and Getty
Drawing showing Joseph Banks ‘bartering with a Māori for a crayfish’, 1769, by A. Buchan, John F. Miller, and others. From the British Library Collection Add. 15508, no.11
Lisa Reihana, In Pursuit of Venus (infected), 2015–17. Image courtesy of the artist, New Zealand at Venice and Artprojects