Image: Michael C. Carlos Museum, Lyon
The Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta is presenting ‘Compassion: What Moves You?’, an exhibition examining empathy, shared humanity and the ways people respond—or fail to respond—to the needs of others. Organized as part of Emory University’s Year of Compassion initiative, the exhibition is scheduled to run from January 31 through November 1, 2026.
The project is presented by the Carlos Museum and Emory’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. Its stated purpose is to approach compassion as a concrete and experiential subject, asking what motivates people, what gives them purpose, and how empathy and connection can be developed across differences. The exhibition also considers the circumstances in which people neglect to protect or help others, and what might be done to address that failure.
Among the featured artists is Shingo Kanagawa, whose ongoing ‘father’ series traces his relationship with his often-absent father and his desire for connection. The series is presented as an inquiry into how viewers might empathize with people who struggle to understand themselves. Kanagawa was born in Japan in 1981; the series consists of inkjet prints mounted on dibond and dates from 2009 to the present.
The exhibition also includes ‘INOCHI THEATER: If Your Life Were Light’ by the Japanese collective ARu, Inc., comprising Kosuke Matsushima, Masashi Fujimoto, Ryoji Yukino and Sui Nacazima. The installation uses flows of light connected to the human heart to address common humanity and interdependence. A further section brings compassion into dialogue with conflict through a segment of Ota Shogo’s ‘The Water Station’, directed by Héctor Álvarez, an Emory professor of Theater Studies, shown opposite a gallery addressing the life of Richard Moore, who was blinded during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The presentation then connects those subjects with work by students participating worldwide in Emory’s SEE Learning® education program, alongside artists represented in the Carlos Museum’s permanent Works on Paper collection. The listed artists include Danny Lyon, Manjari Sharma, Kristin Capp and José Ibarra Rizo. Their works are described as exploring identity, memory and the connective threads of a shared world. Visitors are also invited into a ‘Compassion Lab’, where they can reflect and participate in an ongoing dialogue on the exhibition’s central subject.
‘Compassion: What Moves You?’ is curated by Brendan Ozawa-de Silva, associate teaching professor in Emory’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics and global professor at Keio University, and Jennifer Knox, director of character education and Ron M. Brill Chair of Ethical Leadership at Woodward Academy. Andi McKenzie, curator of works on paper at the Carlos Museum, serves as facilitating curator. The exhibition is supported by the Charles S. Ackerman Fund, the Christian Humann Foundation and Keio University, and is on view at the museum at 571 South Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, through November 1, 2026.
