From the mid-1960s through 2000, Asawa created hundreds of individual face masks out of clay. With the Cantor's Asian American Art Initiative, this wall of 233 masks becomes a permanent part of their collection.
This second installation in the Fang Family Launchpad is a masterful example of the suspended, abstract works of looped wire for which Asawa is best known.
The Collection 2 exhibition focuses on the way artists undo and redo existing materials, structures, and history along with the state of their works. As a starting point, we look at pieces by Louise Bourgeois and Leonor Antunes that were acquired by the museum in 2023, and a work by Ruth Asawa that was acquired in 2024 and is being shown here for the first time in Japan.