Summer Series: Kelly Akashi and Ruba Katrib

Jul 17, 2025 12:30PM-1:30PM

Schermer Meeting Hall

Kelly Akashi: Executed with deft manual skill and astute material knowledge, Kelly Akashi’s visual language emphasizes the impermanence of the natural world, recording and indexing fragmented moments in time. Her singular practice is characterized by a rigorous conceptual approach, yet the work is distinguished by a deep reverence for process. Always a student, Akashi is perpetually studying new practices and physical techniques such as glass-blowing, casting, candle-making and stone carving.

Ruba Katrib is the Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at MoMA PS1, New York where she oversees the museum’s program and is a member of the leadership team. At PS1 she has organized exhibitions such as The Gatherers (2025), Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE (2023), Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally (2022), and Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: Autonomous Drive (2022), among others. From 2012–2018 she was the Curator at SculptureCenter in New York, where she organized over twenty exhibitions. She regularly writes for periodicals and museum catalogs.

Panel

Kelly Akashi

Summer Series Speaker

Kelly Akashi, based in Los Angeles, is recognized for her innovative work in sculpture. She has received notable accolades, including the MOCA Los Angeles Twelfth Distinguished Women in the Arts Award (2024), the LACMA Art + Technology Grant (2022), and the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize (2019). Akashi’s recent solo exhibitions include a major showcase that traveled to the San Jose Museum of Art, Frye Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (2022-2024). Currently, her work is on view at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, The Warehouse Dallas Art Foundation in Dallas, and The Olivia Foundation in Mexico City. Akashi recently concluded solo exhibitions at Lisson Gallery in Los Angeles (2025), Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan (2024), and Henry Art Gallery in Seattle (2023-2024). Other recent institutional group exhibitions include Moody Center for the Arts, Houston (2024), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2024), and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023). Kelly Akashi’s work can be found in prestigious permanent collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; CC Foundation, Shanghai; The Perimeter, London; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; Sifang Museum, Nanjing, among others.

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Ruba Katrib

Summer Series Speaker

Ruba Katrib is the Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at MoMA PS1, New York where she oversees the museum’s program and is a member of the leadership team. At PS1 she has organized exhibitions such as The Gatherers (2025), Rirkrit Tiravanija: A LOT OF PEOPLE (2023), Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally (2022), Frieda Toranzo Jaeger: Autonomous Drive (2022), Greater New York (2021), Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life (2021), Simone Fattal’s retrospective in 2019, as well as solo shows by Edgar Heap of Birds (2019), Karrabing Collective (2019), Fernando Palma Rodríguez, and Julia Phillips (2018). From 2012–2018 she was the Curator at SculptureCenter in New York, where she organized over twenty exhibitions including 74 million million million tons (2018, co-organized with artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan) and solo shows with Carissa Rodriguez, Kelly Akashi, Sam Anderson, Teresa Burga, Nicola L., Charlotte Prodger, Rochelle Goldberg, Aki Sasamoto, Cosima von Bonin, Anthea Hamilton, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Magali Reus, Gabriel Sierra, Erika Verzutti, and David Douard. In 2018, Katrib co-curated SITE Santa Fe’s biennial, Casa Tomada, along with José Luis Blondet and Candice Hopkins. She regularly writes for periodicals and museum catalogues. 

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