Image: Frye Art Museum, Seatlle
The Frye Art Museum is presenting ‘Lotus L. Kang: I hear the hollow boom of time’, the artist’s largest museum exhibition to date. Running from June 6 to September 27, 2026, the Seattle exhibition brings together two major new installations and a series of works on paper developed in dialogue with the museum’s architecture.
According to the museum, Kang creates installations that respond to the spaces they inhabit and make use of the tools of photography in unexpected ways. The exhibition is organized by Georgia Erger, Curator, and is shown with a low-light room that may be disorienting for some visitors. The Frye says the presentation is supported by Frye members, with media sponsorship from The Stranger and additional support from 4Culture.
Kang’s work in the exhibition centers on materials, surfaces and processes that blur the line between photographic image and sculptural object. One installation features large sheets of unfixed industrial film exposed to varied light sources in a process Kang calls “tanning,” a term the museum says she uses to liken the film’s sensitive surface to skin. Tatami mats serve as the foundation for sculptures placed between the suspended, cascading film sheets.
A second major installation uses a kinetic sculpture shaped to evoke an enlarged ribcage. The work includes a rotating drum wrapped in celluloid film that projects shifting bands of color and light across the gallery. Its motion is timed to a rhythmic score based on lines of poetry, extending the exhibition’s interest in memory, translation and inheritance into a multisensory register.
The museum describes the exhibition as exploring “leaky boundaries” between inside and outside, life and death, and deterioration and regeneration. That language is consistent with the artist’s iterative practice, which the Frye says revisits forms and materials across works. The title itself, ‘I hear the hollow boom of time’, frames the exhibition around duration and transformation rather than a single fixed narrative.
Public programming tied to the exhibition includes ‘Lotus L. Kang and Nour Mobarak in Conversation’ on June 6, 2026, and ‘By the Book: Readings Inspired by Lotus L. Kang’ on August 20, 2026. The latter event brings together four local authors — Lauren Davis, Stacy D. Flood, Monica West and Diana Xin — for readings and conversation informed by books Kang shared while preparing the exhibition.
The Frye’s exhibition page also notes related access and event information around the show, including the exhibition’s June 6 opening and the September 27 closing date. ‘Lotus L. Kang: I hear the hollow boom of time’ is on view at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle through September 27, 2026.
