Spirit house is a significant exhibition related to the museum’s Asian American Art Initiative (AAAI) that investigates how contemporary artists of Asian descent challenge the boundary between life and death through art. A thematic exploration of the work of thirty-three Asian American and Asian diasporic artists, Spirit house asks the question, what does it mean to speak to ghosts, inhabit haunted spaces, be reincarnated, or enter different dimensions? Inspired by spirit houses, small devotional structures found throughout Thailand that provide shelter for the supernatural, this exhibition considers how art can bridge the gap between this world and the next.

Here, contemporary artists reckon with the spiritual and spectral in our visual culture and question the many forms that ghosts can take. In foregrounding intuitive and inherited forms of knowledge, these artists challenge the primacy of data-driven, scientific methods of understanding the world around us.

Participating artists include: Kelly Akashi, Korakrit Arunanondchai, James Clar, Maia Cruz Palileo, Binh Danh, Dominique Fung, Pao Houa Her, Greg Ito, Tommy Kha, Heesoo Kwon, Timothy Lai, An-My Lê, Dinh Q. Lê, Kang Seung Lee, Tidawhitney Lek, Jarod Lew, Reagan Louie, Cathy Lu, Nina Molloy, Tammy Nguyen, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Catalina Ouyang, Namita Paul, Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, Kour Pour, Jiab Prachakul, Stephanie H. Shih, Do Ho Suh, Masami Teraoka, Salman Toor, Lien Truong, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Wanxin Zhang.

Spirit house is curated by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and Co-director of the Asian American Art Initiative at the Cantor Arts Center, with Kathryn Cua, curatorial assistant for the Asian American Art Initiative.

We gratefully acknowledge lead support for Spirit house provided by Pamela and David Hornik; and Aey Phanachet and Roger Evans. Generous support provided by Nelson Chu; and Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese. Additional support provided by Melissa and Trevor Fetter; Lisa Young and Steven Abraham; and anonymous. Sustained support generously provided by the Constance Corcoran Miller Fund for Academic Initiatives, the Robert M. and Ruth L. Halperin Curatorship Fund, the Darle and Patrick Maveety Fund for Asian Art, the Robert Mondavi Family Fund at the Cantor Arts Center, and the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Fund.