In 1774, a young man from Ra’iātea in French Polynesia stepped off HMS Adventure at Plymouth and into Georgian society. His name was Mai—though the English called him Omai—and over the next two years he would become one of the most celebrated figures in London, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in what is generally considered the artist’s finest portrait.
Now, 250 years later, that portrait has come home to Plymouth. And this is your last chance to see it in the UK before it heads to Los Angeles.
Journeys with Mai opened at The Box, Plymouth on 14 February 2026 and runs until 14 June, bringing Reynolds’ masterpiece to the city where both painter and subject have deep connections. Reynolds was born in nearby Plympton; Mai arrived and departed from Plymouth on Captain James Cook’s second and third voyages. The portrait, jointly acquired by the National Portrait Gallery and the J. Paul Getty Trust for £50 million in 2023, has been touring the UK since being saved for the nation, stopping at Cartwright Hall in Bradford and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Plymouth is the final stop before it crosses the Atlantic.
But this is far more than a single painting on a wall. Displayed across four gallery spaces, Journeys with Mai is an ambitious immersive exhibition that re-examines Reynolds’ work within the context of Plymouth’s local and global histories, exploring early encounters between Europeans and South Pacific Island peoples from multiple perspectives.
Mai (c.1753-1779) travelled to England as part of Cook’s second voyage, brought by Captain Tobias Furneaux. He spent two years in Britain, from 1774 to 1776, becoming a sensation in London society—presented to King George III, taken up by aristocratic patrons, and painted by the leading artists of the day. Reynolds’ portrait shows him draped in tapa cloth and white robes, barefoot against an idealised landscape, a figure caught between two worlds.
The exhibition places this celebrated image alongside depictions of the key players behind Britain’s 18th-century seafaring expansion: Cook, Joseph Banks, the Earl of Sandwich. A portrait of Captain Furneaux, the man who brought Mai to Britain, painted by Reynolds’ assistant James Northcote, is being publicly displayed for the first time.
Crucially, the exhibition also presents Pacific perspectives. Watercolours by Tupaia, a fellow native of Ra’iātea who joined Cook’s voyage on HMS Endeavour as an interpreter, guide, and cultural advisor, are on loan from the British Library. These works offer a reading of early cultural encounters from a very different viewpoint.
Contemporary commissions extend the conversation. New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana’s monumental video work In Pursuit of Venus [infected] is being shown outside London for the first time in the UK. The piece uses 21st-century digital technologies to animate a 19th-century French wallpaper depicting an idealised Tahitian landscape, populating it with the sights and sounds of dance and cultural ceremonies performed by people drawn from across the Pacific.
A new soundscape by Tahitian artist Hinatea Columbani records the making of tapa, the highly valued bark cloth that Mai wears in the portrait. Devon-based artist Mohini Chandra has created a new commission, Expedition into a Volcano, responding to the idealised landscape in the painting and exploring how notions of a Pacific “paradise” have entered our collective consciousness over 250 years. The work combines archival film from The Box’s collections with contemporary footage shot around Mount Edgcumbe in nearby Cornwall.
New research into Mai’s time in Plymouth and the city’s role in early encounters between Europe and the South Pacific forms part of the exhibition, drawing on The Box’s archival materials. A newly commissioned animation for schools explores this history to support curriculum topics including migration, empire, and the transatlantic slave trade.
“Plymouth is the birthplace of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the city was the starting point for all of Cook’s voyages, so we are thrilled to be able to share this extraordinary portrait and ambitious exhibition with our audiences,” said Victoria Pomery, CEO at The Box. “Journeys with Mai is a valuable opportunity for The Box to continue its ongoing work to address Plymouth’s colonial past, and for our visitors and collaborators to meaningfully engage with some of the many complex histories and narratives around it.”
A programme of events and activities will culminate with a Youth Summit on 6 June 2026, bringing together young people who have been working with the Journeys with Mai partnership venues across the country.
The exhibition is a national partnership project led by the National Portrait Gallery, Bradford District Museums and Galleries, and the Fitzwilliam Museum, in collaboration with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge and The Box. It is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund, and other funders.
After Plymouth, the portrait travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. If you want to see Reynolds’ masterpiece in Britain, this is your last chance.
Journeys with Mai
When: Now open until 14 June 2026
Where: The Box, Tavistock Place, Plymouth PL4 8AX
More information: theboxplymouth.com
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