Haegue Yang's exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, uses Venetian blinds to explore themes of exile, division, and asymmetry, as reviewed by Alex Paik. The article also covers a separate exhibition at The Huntington Library juxtaposing the personal effects of Charlotte Brontë and Octavia E. Butler, a controversy over AI-colorized Ansel Adams photos sold by gallerist James Danziger, a statue of a Revolutionary War officer who enslaved people installed at Freedom Plaza, and the death of Miami graffiti legend Eric Alan Hirt (Eson).
These stories matter because they highlight ongoing tensions in the art world—between tradition and technology (AI-altered Adams photos), historical memory and public monuments (the Freedom Plaza statue), and the preservation of personal archives versus institutional narratives (the Brontë/Butler show and the essay on artists' archives). Yang's meditation on exile resonates with contemporary geopolitical and personal displacements, while the passing of Eson marks a loss for Miami's graffiti community.