SAN FRANCISCO—Late Japanese American modernist artist Ruth Aiko Asawa Lanier, who is known best for her art style of looped technique, creating three-dimensional, organic, hanging sculptures has a new travelling exhibit.
“Ruth Asawa; Retrospective” is a travelling exhibit. Museums that already traveled to are San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from Saturday, April 5, 2025, to Tuesday, September 2, 2025, and New York’s MoMA from Sunday, October 19 to Saturday, February 7, 2026. It is currently exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, September 13, 2026. Future exhibition will take place at Foundation Breyeler in Switzerland from Monday, October 18, 2026, to Sunday, January 24, 2027.
Born in Norwalk, California as the fourth of seven children, she was sent to an internment camp with her family during World War II, where Disney animators taught her art lessons. After her release, she was denied an art degree from mainstream college because of Japanese profiling and attended Black Mountain College (1946-1949) in North Carolina, where Josef Albers and Buckminisinter Fuller mentored her.
In 1949, Asawa moved to San Francisco to marry architect Albert Lanier and raise six children. She created public fountains,’ including the Andrea Mermaid Fountain at Ghirardelli Square and Hyatt San Francisco Fountain.
She advocated for arts education in San Francisco when she co-founded Alvarado Arts Workshop and launched the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts.
Asawa left major collections to the MOMA, Whitney Museum and DeYoung Museum has a permanent display of her sculptures. She was posthumously awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2023.
Ruth Asawa Day has been celebrated since February 12, 1982. On the anniversary of Asawa’s 97th birthday on Tuesday, January 24, 2023, there was a release on her new product collection.
January 24, 2026 marked the anniversary of Asawa’s 100th birthday. The grand opening of the first show at the permanent Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. family foundation gallery at the Minnesota Street Project, “Ruth Asawa: Untitled,” will be from Saturday, May 9 to Saturday, June 20 located at 1275 Minnesota St. It is open Tuesday thru Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
