Whitney Biennial 2026

Through Aug 23

Exhibition artists

56 total
Kelly Akashi
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Kelly Akashi

Born 1983 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in Altadena, CA
A tall glass-brick sculpture with a matching glass path sits on a rooftop.
A tall glass-brick sculpture with a matching glass path sits on a rooftop.

Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2026 (Whitney Museum of American Art, March 8–August 2026). Hyundai Terrace Commission Kelly Akashi, 2026. Photograph by Timothy Schenck

Lea el siguiente texto en español
Kelly Akashi
Born 1983 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in Altadena, CA

Monument (Altadena) stands as a testament to the widespread losses suffered in Altadena, California, in the Eaton Fire in January 2025. After Kelly Akashi’s home and studio burned, the chimney was the only structure left standing. She worked with a mason to rebuild it piece by piece, alongside a reconstruction of her home’s walkway, in luminous glass brick. 

Akashi made Inheritance (Distressed) using one of her grandmother’s doilies that she saved from a family garage sale but was later lost in the Eaton Fire. Here the delicate form of the doily is cut into Cor-Ten steel, a material linked to Minimalist sculpture and its art-historical associations with masculinity. The work explores the ways that artists—especially women—inherit and grapple with artistic and familial histories. 

Imprints, 2026

Akashi made Imprints using her grandmother’s doilies, which she saved from a family garage saleonly to have them later destroyed in the January 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena, California. Akashi uses these commonly inherited objects to reflect on the themes of familial inheritance and loss, ideas also present in Akashi’s terrace sculpture Inheritance (Distressed). 

Akashi creó Grabados utilizando tapetes de crochet de su abuela, que había rescatado de una venta de garage familiar y que posteriormente fueron destruidos en el incendio de Eaton en enero de 2025 en Altadena, California. Akashi utiliza estos objetos que se heredan comúnmente para hablar sobre la dificultad de entender el legado familiar y la pérdida, ideas que también están presentes en su escultura Herencia (Desgastada), ubicada en la terraza.

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.