With the shrewd eye of an anthropologist, Gala Porras-Kim appraises ancient relics and other neglected cultural items to interrogate the ethical, historical, and spiritual dimensions of museum collections. Through hyperdetailed drawings and mixed-media installations often involving unconventional materials—dust, mold, and even human remains—she gently upends the clinical taxonomies that shape institutional practices, positing artifacts as conscious entities rife with extant meanings and agency. 

The Colombian-Korean-American artist began 2025 with “A Hand in Nature,” a solo show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, probing conservation policies dedicated to fending off pernicious atmospheric phenomena. Here, she embraced these undesirable elements through copal resin sculptures soaked with local rainwater, as well as canvases from her Signals series (2021– ) made using dehumidifiers that gathered and released moisture onto graphite-coated fabrics, resulting in dark, splashy abstractions. For “The reflection at the threshold of a categorical division” at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, she worked closely with staff there to scrutinize the institution’s cataloging and exhibition methods.