Haegue Yang’s Meditations on Exile
Also, the controversy around an AI-altered version of an Ansel Adams photo.
Half-open, half-closed; glimpses, but not passageways. Haegue Yang’s Venetian blinds, Alex Paik writes in a review of her show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, invite the viewer to meditate on doublings, inversions, and asymmetries: a Korea arbitrarily divided by the US military, a composer driven to exile, star-crossed lovers at opposite ends of the galaxy.
On the other end of Los Angeles, the Huntington juxtaposes two very different powerhouse writers: 19th-century English novelist Charlotte Brontë and sci-fi pioneer Octavia E. Butler, uncovering layers of motherhood, career, friendship, family, and loss through their personal effects. “Speak well, and tell a good story,” Butler wrote in a notebook on view in the exhibition. We take that to heart here.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
The Private Worlds of Charlotte Brontë and Octavia E. Butler
Stories from the Library: From Brontë to Butler illustrates how a single person and her possessions can encompass their own reality, especially for those who build worlds for a living.
In the show at The Huntington Library, the inner lives of important women writers are depicted through their personal effects. The objects on display range in date from the Victorian-era novelist Charlotte Brontë to 20th-century science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. Not only are the items varied in years, but in topic as well: An 1819 letter from English author Mary Shelley describing the pain of losing a child lies feet away from the 20th-century prose of Butler and Eve Babitz. | Hannah Benson
Read MoreNews
- The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust has lambasted New York City gallerist James Danziger for offering AI-colorized editions of one of the late artist’s most recognized photos for sale at an art fair last month.
- A group of sculptures installed at Freedom Plaza includes a statue of a Revolutionary War officer who enslaved at least 200 people during his lifetime.
- Miami graffiti legend Eric Alan Hirt (“Eson”), a prolific urban tagger and member of the Miami Style Gods (MSG) crew, has died in a train strike.
From Our Critics
The In-Between Worlds of Larissa Borteh
In the artist’s paintings, are we looking at plants in a state of beautiful decay, ghosts, deities, fairylands, or something from a dream? | John Yau
Read MoreHaegue Yang’s Constellations for a Divided Korea
The artist’s play on light and shadow transforms Venetian blinds into haunting reflections on exile, borders, and the longing for reunification. | Alex Paik
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Lehman College Art Gallery Presents the 2026 Thesis Exhibition
On view May 20 to 28, the show brings together over thirty undergraduate and graduate artists, reflecting a broad spectrum of conceptual inquiry and material experimentation.
Member Comment
Laurie Snyder on Damien Davis's "When Artists Lose Their Archives"
From the Archive
Can Artists Stop the AI Slop Machine?
A recent workshop in Manhattan’s Lower East Side challenged the notion that the takeover of machine learning is inevitable. | Aaron Short
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