The Contemporary Austin will open 'The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry' at the Jones Center on September 18, 2026, presenting what it describes as the largest exhibition to date in the United States devoted to the Swedish artist Moki Cherry. The show runs through January 17, 2027 and is paired in the same fall season with 'HOST: Laura Lit', another exhibition opening on the same date at the Jones Center.
According to the museum, 'The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry' focuses on an artist whose “life was her canvas.” Moki Cherry was born in 1943 in Norrbotten, Sweden, and died in 2009 in Tågarp, Sweden. The Contemporary Austin says the exhibition highlights her holistic practice, which dissolved the boundaries between home and stage, art and everyday life.
The exhibition brings together textiles, costumes, posters, ceramics, sculpture, video, sound and archival materials. That range reflects the broad scope of Cherry’s practice as presented by the institution, where the visual material is organized around the idea of an integrated artistic life rather than a single medium or discipline.
The museum’s announcement includes an image of 'Organic Music (Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, Moki, G. Pramaggiore) (Handmade Tour poster)', a 1975 textile appliqué work, and a photograph of Moki and Neneh Cherry in their home in Gamla Stan, Stockholm, from 1967. Additional credit lines note materials courtesy of the Estate of Moki Cherry and Galleri Nicolai Wallner. The selection suggests the exhibition draws on both artwork and archival context to frame Cherry’s practice.
The Contemporary Austin also points to the exhibition’s institutional and funding support. Major original support for 'The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry' has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Coby Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Economic & Community Development, the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation and the American-Scandinavian Foundation. The museum says its exhibition program is supported in part by named funds and donors, with additional support for exhibitions and programming from an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment and Still Water Foundation.
A member preview is scheduled for September 18 from 6:30 to 8 p.m., followed by a public opening from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at the Jones Center. The opening-night program is listed as free with RSVP, and the museum’s newsletter also notes a vinyl DJ set by filmmaker and educator Ephraim Asili and a Moki-inspired iron-on patch activity during the public opening.
