Kelly Akashi
Lisson Gallery
Los Angeles

For her eponymous solo show at Lisson Gallery in Los Angeles, American artist Kelly Akashi took an almost Ikebana approach to her installation. As in the poetic Japanese art of floral arranging, she readjusted and repositioned her hewn and cast sculptural objects down to the minute of the exhibition’s opening. Originally intending to open the show at the end of January, Akashi suddenly found herself, like tens of thousands of Angelenos, completely displaced, as her home and attached studio—and the artworks within—were lost to the Eaton Fire that razed her Altadena neighborhood. Akashi solicited the local art community, seeking donations and other support, and, as a result, was able to almost entirely remake her show in under a month. The fires burned an astonishing 14,000 acres—roughly the size of Manhattan—and Akashi’s show was a poignant reminder of the individual anguish experienced by those affected.