SFMOMA celebrates Ruth Asawa’s radical grace and geometric vision

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) presents Ruth Asawa: Retrospective, the first major international museum survey of the pioneering Japanese American artist, on view from April 5th through September 2nd, 2025. Spanning six decades and over 300 works, the exhibition offers an expansive view of Asawa’s visionary practice—from her iconic looped- and tied-wire sculptures to lesser-known drawings, prints, and design objects. Organized in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the show traces the profound influence of her San Francisco home, her early studies at Black Mountain College, and her lifelong dedication to community and education.

A gallery dedicated to her 1940s studies at Black Mountain reveals how mentors like Josef Albers and Buckminster Fuller helped shape her visual language through pattern, form, and material exploration. Another gallery re-creates her Noe Valley home studio, where suspended wire forms once hovered from the ceiling, surrounded by sketchbooks, hand-carved redwood doors, and works by fellow artists. Visitors will also encounter her delicate sculptural miniatures—some barely larger than an inch—as well as the garden-inspired botanical drawings from the final years of her life.

Throughout the exhibition, archival footage and maquettes document Asawa’s role as a civic leader, highlighting public works like the San Francisco Fountain and the Japanese American Internment Memorial. Co-curator Janet Bishop describes Asawa not only as a visionary sculptor, but also as someone who lived her values through activism and arts education. After its run at SFMOMA, the retrospective will travel to MoMA in New York, the Guggenheim Bilbao, and Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland.