.The Faces of Ruth Asawa Held at Cantor Arts Center

Jul 5, 2022

Ruth Asawa with Face Mask Wall — CERAMIC MASKS Ruth Asawa poses with life masks on the exterior wall of her house. Photography Credit Terry Schmitt.

From the mid-1960s through 2000, hundreds of masks made of bisque-fired clay decorated the exterior of Japanese-American sculptor Ruth Asawa’s home. The late San Francisco-based artist, best known for her biomorphic wire mobiles, immortalized the myriad faces of her friends and family but never exhibited the collection formally. That’s all changing with the opening of The Faces of Ruth Asawa at Cantor Arts Center, when these ceramic masks once considered “ephemera” cross over to museum-guarded glory. Curator Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander says the masks “completely expanded my understanding of Asawa’s practice.”

Faces of Ruth Asawa

Opens Wed, 11am, Free

Cantor Arts Center, Stanford

Addie Mahmassani https://www.addiemahmassani.com/

Addie Mahmassani is a poet based in Santa Cruz. She holds a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark and is currently an MFA student in creative writing at San Jose State University. There, she is a Teaching Associate as well as the lead poetry editor of Reed Magazine, California's oldest literary journal. She also surfs, sings and loves a part-sheepdog named Lou.