Exhibitions

my hands are monsters who believe in magic is a group exhibition that explores an artist’s capacity for the radical reimagination of the self through a process of unmaking and remaking. Featuring contemporary photography, video, and ceramics by ten artists from the Asian diaspora—Alex Anderson, Tommy Kha, Maggie Lee, Jarod Lew, Cathy C. Lu, Diane Severin Nguyen, Miraj Patel, Leonard Suryajaya, Guanyu Xu, and Amia Yokoyama—the exhibition highlights the liberatory possibilities of self-construction and reinvention. The works on view navigate the endless, messy, contradictory, and sometimes grotesque process of understanding oneself in relation to history, materiality, and community. The title of the exhibition quotes a line from Ocean Vuong’s poem “Dear Sara” in Time Is a Mother. my hands are monsters who believe in magic is organized by guest curator Kris Kuramitsu.

About the Curator
Kris Kuramitsu is an independent curator and educator in Los Angeles. As Senior Curator at The Mistake Room in Los Angeles, she organized exhibitions such as Matsumi Kanemitsu: Metamorphic Effects (2014); Cao Fei: Shadow Plays (2015); A Tender Spot: Sky Hopinka and Karrabing Film Collective (2018); and Gaëlle Choisne: Temple of Love – ADORABLE (2019), among others. She curates the Candlewood Arts Festival, a program of temporary public art projects in the Anza Borrego Desert for the Under the Sun Foundation. Additionally, she has organized exhibitions for institutions such as the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, Claremont, CA; LAXART, Los Angeles; Instituto Cervantes, Madrid; and the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles. She has taught at Harvey Mudd College and was the 2022 curatorial resident at Occidental College, where she organized the exhibition Voice a Wild Dream: Moments in Asian American Art and Activism, 1968-2022. She is the recipient of the 2024 Call to Dream Sam Francis Fellowship.

Public Programs

Subscribe to our email list to be the first to know of our programs. All exhibition public programs are free, and donations are appreciated. To support our programming, please go to armoryarts.org/support.

Upcoming Public Programs

Tracing the In/Visible Home: Collaging Our Identities
Saturday, June 14
1-3 PM

Led by Armory Teaching Artist, Austyn de Lugo-Liston, Tracing the In/Visible Home: Collaging Our Identities workshop is an invitation to consider how identity is shaped by encompassing factors such as location, family, environment, culture, values and beliefs, and relationships. The workshop is inspired by exhibiting artist, Guanyu Xu’s expression of belonging through spatial analog collages representing immigration, home, and identity in domestic space. The 2-hour workshop will uncover the work of Guanyu Xu in the current exhibition, my hands are monsters who believe in magic, followed by a collage-making session. Materials will be provided for the workshop. You are welcome to bring images to add to your collage.

Past Public Programs

Trampoline House: Memory Drawing Series, Iteration I & II
April 5, 7:15-8 PM and April 6, 7:15-8 PM

Opening Public Celebration
Sunday, May 4
1-3:30 PM

Join us for the opening celebration on May 4, which includes a drop-in, all-ages artmaking workshop led by Armory Teaching Artist Lark Crable. Participants will create and take home their own "Clay Monster." This event and workshop are free and open to everyone. 

See Art, Make Art: Exhibition Field Trips

Armory Teaching Artists will tour your K-12 students through From the Ground Up and learn about its concepts and themes through inquiry-based, interactive activities. Following the tour, Armory Teaching Artists will lead your students through an artmaking activity related to what they learned about the exhibition. Every student will make their own artwork to bring home.

Guided Tours

If your community group or organization would like to schedule a guided tour of the exhibition, please contact Armory Visitor Services and Volunteer Manager Alheli Tostado at [email protected].

Media

Asian Diasporic Artists Ask How We Create Our Self-Images - Hyperallergic Article by Alex Paik

"I often wonder how simply being exposed to this abundance of Asian bodies and cultural representation — an experience quite different from my own childhood — is influencing their growing senses of self, specifically their racial identities as mixed ethnicity Asian Americans." - 

my hands are monsters who believe in magic is made possible with major support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and generous support from the Pasadena Art Alliance. Lead support for all Armory programs comes from the Perenchio Foundation.

Image: Jarod Lew, Blending in Orange, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.