In the Shadow of Ruth Asawa

Lisa Yin Zhang | Hyperallergic | 17th October 2025

It seems this show will be as big a hit in New York as it was in San Francisco. Asawa’s early work was diverse – drawings, watercolours, folded paper, ceramics – but on a visit to Mexico she learned looped wire basketry. Her iconic sculptures soon emerged, in a wide variety of shapes that seemed “inside and outside at the same time”. Later, she tied bundles of wires to make fractal-like arrangements. Once thought “domestic” Asawa’s work “seems to make [the] continuity between all things tangible”.