Surrealism

Since 2007, Pixy Liao (廖逸君) has collaborated with her partner, Takahiro Morooka (諸岡高裕, nicknamed Moro), on a series of staged, often humorous self-portraits. These works wryly examine the power dynamics between artist and muse, prod at conservative gender roles, and document the evolution of their relationship. Pixy (born 1979 in Shanghai, China), an artist working in photography, installation, and performance, met Japanese-born artist and musician Moro in 2006 when both were international students in Memphis, Tennessee. Their creative partnership has grown and evolved over the years to include many projects including their music group, PIMO, which has released six albums to date. Pixy began the photographic series, known as Experimental Relationship, shortly after she and Moro met, with many of the works playfully referencing art history, film, music, and other artifacts of popular culture. She plans to continue it so long as they remain together. Presenting approximately 45 works that span the duration of this ongoing series, Pixy Liao: Relationship Material—the artist’s first exhibition in Chicago—celebrates the couple’s many ways of being and working together. As the title suggests, the show frames Pixy’s relationship with Moro as artistic material in itself, showing how this manifests not only in photographs but also in sculptures, videos, and PIMO. Through these works, Pixy chronicles and enacts efforts to “reach a new equilibrium” in a partnership that is both artistic and romantic, examining questions of fantasy, desire, and control. Image: How to build a relationship with layered meanings, 2008, Pixy Liao, Courtesy of the artist. © Pixy Liao

When the Veil is Thin opens at Galerie XII Los Angeles from October 4 through December 9, 2025, bringing together four artists whose work explores the liminal, the hidden, and the ephemeral. The exhibition unfolds in the season of autumn, when the shadows grow long and the boundaries between seen and unseen feel most fragile, inviting visitors into a space of reflection and wonder. Charlotte Mano’s luminous self-portraits capture a body at once human and celestial. Bathed in the glow of full moonlight, her figure shimmers with pearlescent light, appearing to float weightlessly into the night. In some images, she transforms into the moon itself, a radiant presence suspended in serene solitude, evoking the mystical power of stillness and introspection. Quentin Shih interrogates memory as a spectral, unstable force. His images, often drenched in red light or suffused with eerie interiors, conjure recollection as an act of summoning. Figures emerge and dissolve within shadow, caught between what is remembered and imagined, creating a haunting sense of presence that hovers at the edges of consciousness. Siri Kaur weaves intimate family moments with archetypal myth, revealing the intersection of home, ritual, and transformation. Her work examines how familial bonds can be both nurturing and uncanny, binding the personal to larger, symbolic narratives that shape identity in subtle, often occult ways. Anja Niemi explores identity’s fracturing through playful and unsettling performance. Donning wigs, costumes, and elaborate disguises, she presents a series of döpplegangers—alternate selves that erupt, collide, and evolve. Her work blurs the line between roles and realities, creating a visual meditation on multiplicity and metamorphosis. Together, these artists construct a twilight realm where perception wavers and thresholds shift. When the Veil is Thin captures the moment when the familiar world dissolves into the unknown, revealing spaces of wonder, reflection, and the hidden energies that stir just beyond ordinary sight. Image: RJ17.WB21.29, 2017 Digital Chromogenic print 43.3 x 43.3 in / 110 x 110 cm 59.1 x 59.1 in / 150 x 150 cm Edition limited to 3 prints + 1 AP © Quentin Shih

Salve Regina University’s Department of Art and Art History presents Infancia, an exhibition organized in collaboration with the Newport-based nonprofit Fundación Magdalena, showcasing 42 silver gelatin prints by renowned Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide. This significant presentation includes previously unpublished works that explore themes of childhood and rural life across various corners of the world. Thanks to Iturbide’s longstanding relationship with Fundación Magdalena, this marks the first exhibition dedicated solely to her photographs of children. The exhibition is accompanied by a beautifully designed catalog published by Editorial RM in Barcelona, featuring reproductions of the works alongside an insightful essay by Colombian curator María Wills. This publication, which deepens the conversation around Iturbide’s artistic vision, will be available later this year through Editorial RM and select independent booksellers worldwide. Infancia also launches a new cultural partnership between Salve Regina University and Fundación Magdalena, intended to foster dialogue and connection through the arts. As part of this initiative, the university will host weekly after-school workshops that bring together native English-speaking students and English language learners from Rhode Island public schools. These creative encounters will use art as a tool for empathy, reflection, and shared understanding, encouraging participants to see both themselves and others in new ways. Born in Mexico City in 1942, Graciela Iturbide has long used photography as a means of exploring her country’s identity, rituals, and contradictions. Her black-and-white images—poetic yet grounded in reality—have been exhibited in institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Over her distinguished career, she has received numerous international honors, confirming her place among the most influential voices in contemporary photography. Image: © Graciela Iturbide

Microscope Gallery presents Navigations, the fourth solo exhibition by Peggy Ahwesh, featuring new video installations and photographic works that explore the politics of flight, displacement, and belonging. Using imagery and footage from a mid-2000s 3D flight simulation game, Ahwesh transforms digital landscapes into meditations on power and freedom, particularly within regions marked by occupation and conflict. Her question lingers throughout the work: what does it mean to be free to fly—to cross borders without fear or restriction? Set primarily in the Eastern Mediterranean, across the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, Navigations draws upon Ahwesh’s background as a second-generation Syrian-American and her years living in Ramallah. Two central video installations were inspired by her visit to the now-abandoned Qalandia Airport, once a hub of travel and exchange, now a silent site layered with contested histories. Through these scenes, Ahwesh reflects on how landscapes become archives of power, memory, and erasure. The large-scale installation The Wayfinders features five simultaneous video projections accompanied by rotating floor fans. Each flight—a journey over Beirut, Damascus, Gaza, Jerusalem, and the night sky—was generated within a virtual simulation that Ahwesh deliberately subverts, crashing planes and breaking digital rules to uncover unexpected imagery. Voices and sounds weave through the air, merging political testimony with atmospheric noise, creating a cinematic space where history and speculation intertwine. Complementing these installations are photographic works made in Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank, many dating back to the early 1990s. These images juxtapose ancient ruins and modern boundaries, technological progress and cultural loss, revealing how civilizations and tools of communication both fade over time. Through Navigations, Ahwesh reimagines flight as a metaphor for resilience and imagination, tracing routes between memory, technology, and the enduring desire for freedom. Image: Peggy Ahwesh, “The Wayfinders,” 2025, five-channel video installation, floor fans, sound, dimensions variable – Courtesy of the artist and Microscope Gallery, New York © Peggy Ahwesh

In this powerful collaborative exhibition, Robin Lasser and Sydney Brown invite viewers to confront the emotional and ecological crises shaping contemporary life by returning to the body—its senses, fears, and fragile resilience. Their work suggests that to navigate global trauma and profound loss, we must resist distancing ourselves from discomfort and instead move closer to the intimate truths these emotions reveal. Through a union of film and sculptural form, the artists create a space where vulnerability becomes a necessary tool for understanding. Lasser’s projected films appear within and around Brown’s copper structures, which evoke homes, water towers, and memorials. These forms, semi-abstract yet deeply symbolic, echo the impermanence of human constructions and the instability of the world they occupy. Delicate and luminous, Brown’s structures hold the films like keepsakes—fragile vessels carrying memories, anxieties, and fragments of hope. Together, the moving images and sculptural frames create a dialogue about what humanity chooses to preserve when faced with disaster and what slips through the cracks of memory. At the heart of the installation lies an exploration of what remains after upheaval. Lasser and Brown gesture toward the collective dreams and nightmares of communities grappling with ecological precarity and the consequences of human-made destruction. Their collaboration becomes a meditation on remembrance: what we treasure, what we rebuild, and what stories we carry forward when the world shifts beneath our feet. Robin Lasser, a Professor of Art at San José State University, is known for her socially engaged projects addressing public health, environmental issues, and justice. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as the San José Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Bangalore, the Museum of Goa, the Recoleta Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, and the Caixa Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro. Her participation in global biennials and longstanding commitment to collaborative art-making ground this exhibition in a broader conversation about humanity’s shared future. Image: Robin Lasser Ghost Ship and Mourning Dove 01 (1/5), 2025 Archival Pigment Print on Metal 30 x 45 in 76.20 x 114.30 cm at Chung 24 Gallery © Robin Lasser

Stephen Wilkes: A Day in the Life… @ JL Modern invites viewers into a world shaped by patience, observation, and a deep reverence for the passage of time. Through his distinctive approach, Wilkes compresses the shifting rhythms of an entire day into a single, seamless image, creating photographs that feel both expansive and intimate. Each work becomes a tapestry of moments—morning light blending into dusk, quiet gestures giving way to the pulse of human activity—revealing the poetry hidden in the ordinary flow of life. Wilkes’s method relies on remaining anchored to one vantage point for hours, sometimes more than a full day, allowing him to witness subtle transformations that most viewers experience only in fragments. By weaving together these collected instants, he constructs scenes that honor not only the beauty of place but the living history unfolding within them. Whether depicting a bustling city, a fragile ecosystem, or a site of cultural significance, his images illuminate the ways in which time shapes our perceptions of the world. A Day in the Life… underscores the photographer’s commitment to storytelling grounded in both vision and craft. The resulting compositions are not merely technical achievements; they are meditations on change, continuity, and our relationship to the spaces we inhabit. Observers are encouraged to linger, discovering new details with each return, much like Wilkes himself does through his long hours behind the lens. What emerges is an invitation to consider the balance between permanence and impermanence. In the glow of shifting skies or the quiet rearrangement of shadows, Wilkes captures the essence of daily existence—fleeting, layered, and deeply human. A Day in the Life… stands as a reminder that even in familiar places, time offers endless stories to those willing to slow down and truly see. Image: Stephen Wilkes — Fagradalsfjall Volcano, Iceland, Day to Night, 2021 Fuji Crystal Archival Photograph 48 x 65.5 in, at JL Modern Gallery © Stephen Wilkes

Daniel Seth Kraus’s photographic project on the Florida Barge Canal investigates the intersections of history, policy, and environment, revealing the unforeseen consequences of human ambition. Once envisioned as a transformative link between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, the canal remains a partially completed relic, its concrete locks, dams, and reservoirs standing abandoned in Florida’s wilderness. Kraus’s images capture these derelict sites not simply as artifacts of failure, but as complex spaces where ecosystems have emerged, challenging notions of what should be preserved or erased. The canal’s story spans centuries, from Spanish explorers tracing rudimentary routes through the dense palmetto brush to New Deal–era ambitions to modernize Florida’s swamplands. Construction displaced communities, most notably the freedman town of Santos, whose residents were coerced into selling their land at minimal compensation while contributing labor to clear and flood the canal route. Kraus’s work reflects on these human costs, emphasizing how policy and progress can both create and dismantle social fabrics. Photographs in this series document the layered tensions of environmental preservation and historical memory. Some areas, once devastated by construction, have now fostered new ecological systems, leaving conservationists in debate over which landscape holds greater value. Kraus’s lens captures the haunting beauty of abandoned structures overrun by nature, prompting questions about what constitutes “original” or authentic environments. Through these images, viewers confront the consequences of political agendas that sideline both communities and ecosystems. Kraus approaches his practice with a historically informed perspective, blending archival research and photographic documentation to illuminate how human actions shape landscapes over time. His work situates the Florida Barge Canal within broader narratives of industrial ambition, environmental change, and cultural memory, exploring how the traces of past decisions linger across generations. By merging scholarship and visual storytelling, Kraus offers a nuanced meditation on the interplay of progress, preservation, and the fragile balance between human and natural systems. Ultimately, this body of work is not only a record of architectural and ecological remnants but a study of human consequence, inviting viewers to reflect on the enduring impact of ambition and the complex ethics of preservation. Image: Inglis Dam Obstructing the Withlacoochee River © Daniel Seth Kraus

Ana Mendieta (American, born Cuba, 1948–1985) remains one of the most evocative voices of 20th-century art, known for merging body, nature, and spirit in profoundly poetic gestures. Her work Grass Breathing (c. 1974) stands as a haunting meditation on the connection between human life and the living earth. In this short film, Mendieta uses the rhythm of her own breath to animate a small patch of grass, transforming it into a pulsing, anthropomorphic form—alive, intimate, and momentary. The piece blurs the line between performance and sculpture, suggesting that the earth itself participates in the act of living and dying alongside the human body. Although often associated with the New York art scene, Mendieta’s creative roots run deep in Iowa. She spent much of her life in the state and produced over sixty-five films there between 1971 and 1981, many exploring what she called “earth-body” work—a term that captures her search for unity between the physical self and the natural world. Grass Breathing exemplifies this vision, embodying both personal ritual and universal renewal. The gentle rise and fall of the soil echo Mendieta’s breath, suggesting cycles of presence and absence, creation and decay. Recently acquired by the Art Center, Grass Breathing expands the institution’s commitment to collecting works that bridge the personal and the elemental, the ephemeral and the eternal. Ana Mendieta: Grass Breathing is organized by Associate Curator Ashton Cooper and invites viewers to experience art not as a static object, but as a living pulse shared between artist, earth, and time itself. Image: Ana Mendieta (American, born Cuba, 1948-1985) Grass Breathing, c.1974 Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Purchased with funds from the Stanley and Gail Richards Art Acquisition Endowment; the Sharon Simmons Art Acquisitions Fund; and the Edmundson Art Foundation, Inc., 2025.11 © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artists Right Society (ARS), New York / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery

Diggin’ in the Frames traces the evolution of MyEyeGotLazy from a small independent zine into a dynamic creative movement. What began in late 2022 as a modest self-published project has grown into a collective platform that transforms photography into a means of connection, visibility, and shared authorship. Through its limited-run publications, exhibitions, and community activations, MyEyeGotLazy provides a space where photographers of all levels can present their work beyond the fleeting digital feed. The exhibition explores how photography thrives when it steps off the screen and reenters the tangible world—printed on paper, displayed on walls, and embedded within community life. Diggin’ in the Frames underscores the ways in which photography can bridge people and places, revealing its power to build networks of creativity and belonging. Each image becomes not just an isolated moment but a fragment of a larger cultural rhythm shaped by collaboration and exchange. Archival materials, past zine editions, and documentation from earlier exhibitions illustrate the evolution of MyEyeGotLazy’s visual identity. Together, these elements chart a story of collective effort and mutual support, reflecting how artists working together can redefine what a photographic community looks like today. The exhibition honors both the contributors who shaped the platform and the audience who continues to sustain it. Founded by Francisco Vasquez and Jean-Andre Antoine, MyEyeGotLazy remains dedicated to celebrating contemporary street photography and the vibrancy of everyday life. The project champions authenticity, accessibility, and the tactile experience of printed imagery. In an era dominated by screens, Diggin’ in the Frames stands as a reminder of photography’s physical and social power—a living, breathing art form grounded in human connection and creative exchange. Image: © Chloe Kerleroux (@chloe_kerleroux)

The Day of the Dead, or Día de Muertos, stands as one of Mexico’s most profound and poetic traditions—a celebration that honors the memory of those who have passed while affirming the unbroken bond between the living and the dead. Rooted in the ancient Mesoamerican belief in life after death and later intertwined with Catholic rituals of remembrance, this observance evolved over centuries into a unique expression of Mexico’s cultural identity. After the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, Indigenous spirituality and European faith merged, giving rise to ceremonies rich in symbolism, color, and devotion. Each region of Mexico has since shaped its own way of honoring this sacred time, weaving local customs into a shared national ritual of love and memory. Across the country, families prepare ofrendas—altars filled with marigolds, candles, photographs, and the favorite dishes of departed relatives—to welcome souls home for a brief visit. Cemeteries come alive with music, prayer, and light, transforming grief into celebration. It is a time not of mourning, but of reunion and gratitude—a living dialogue between generations that transcends the limits of time and loss. This year’s thirty-ninth annual exhibition is dedicated to the memory of the many lives lost in the devastating floods that struck Texas and New Mexico, transforming collective sorrow into a space of reflection and renewal. Visitors are invited to step into the museum’s Courtyard, where an immersive installation created by the youth artists of Yollocalli Arts Reach reimagines the traditional nicho box through vibrant, contemporary forms. At the heart of the space, a community ofrenda invites all to contribute notes, drawings, or tokens of remembrance, building together a tapestry of shared humanity. Curated by Elisa Soto, Dolores Mercado, and Cesáreo Moreno, the exhibition honors the timeless cycle of life and death—celebrating memory as both inheritance and hope. Image: Grave Decorating in Tzintzuntzan (Decoración de tumbas en Tzintzuntzan), 2010, digital photograph / fotografía digital, NMMA Permanent Collection, 2014.258.79, Gift of the artist

Jamel Shabazz’s photography offers a vivid chronicle of urban life, friendship, and resilience from the 1980s to today. His lens captures the essence of community—moments of laughter among friends, the quiet pride of families, and the expressive power of style and self-presentation. Deeply rooted in the culture of the streets, his images reflect the rise of hip-hop as both a musical and visual movement, revealing how fashion, rhythm, and attitude became intertwined forms of identity and empowerment. Whether in black-and-white or color, Shabazz’s photographs radiate warmth and humanity, transforming ordinary encounters into timeless celebrations of connection. The exhibition Love Is the Message marks the fiftieth anniversary of Shabazz’s career and showcases a remarkable selection from his personal archive—prints, cameras, and memorabilia that trace the evolution of his artistic journey. Each image, whether of a Brooklyn block or a moment shared between strangers, testifies to his belief that photography can heal, uplift, and build understanding. His work embodies love not as sentimentality but as a force of dignity and collective memory. Curated in partnership with “Team Love,” the exhibition brings together Jamel Shabazz, Robert “Dupreme” Eatman, Dr. Bilal Polson, Erik Sumner, and the Hofstra University Museum of Art. The presentation is further enriched by the inclusion of Terry Adkins’s Native Son (Circus) (2006) and Archibald J. Motley Jr.’s Bronzeville at Night (1949), works that resonate with the themes of rhythm, visibility, and community pride that define Shabazz’s vision. Accompanied by a series of public programs supported by state arts funding, Love Is the Message invites visitors to reflect on the unifying strength of love, art, and shared experience—affirming photography’s power to connect people across generations and geographies. Image: Jamel Shabazz (American, born 1960) A Time of Innocence Series. East Flatbush. 1980 C-Print 16 x 20 inches Courtesy of the artist © Jamel Shabazz

Stevenson Library at Bard College presents Melissa Shook: Freedom to Create, curated by Fiona Laugharn, an independent curator and Bard alumna. On view from September 18 through December 19, 2025, the exhibition celebrates the enduring influence of Bard on the artistic and intellectual life of Melissa Shook, who studied at the college between 1959 and 1961. The opening reception will take place on September 25, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. At just seventeen, Shook wrote in her Bard application, “I have begun to realize how important freedom is for the person who desires to create in any way.” This early insight into the nature of creativity becomes the guiding thread of the exhibition. Drawn from a recent gift by her daughter, Krissy Shook, the presentation gathers an extraordinary array of personal materials—letters, essays, photographs, and ceramics—alongside a rich selection of handmade artist books and camera equipment. Highlights include prints and contact sheets from Shook’s iconic series Daily Self-Portraits 1972–1973 and Wellfleet (1973), which together capture her lifelong exploration of identity, discipline, and the passage of time. Through correspondence, annotated drafts, and early works, Freedom to Create maps the evolution of a young woman who came to Bard as an English major and left on a path toward becoming one of the most reflective and independent voices in American photography. The exhibition reveals how the environment of freedom and curiosity that Bard fostered served as both inspiration and foundation for Shook’s later work as an artist and educator at the University of Massachusetts Boston. By pairing archival fragments with completed artworks, the exhibition encourages visitors to reflect on their own creative beginnings. It asks a question that Shook herself might have posed: What do we require—internally and externally—to create freely? Image: Kemper Peacock Melissa Shook, ca. 1960s Gelatin silver print 10 x 8 inches © Kristina Shook & The Estate of M. Melissa Shook