Gala Porras-Kim

Gala Porras-Kim's practice interrogates the processes and ethics of museum conservation and, more broadly, the collections and institutions within which contested artefacts are housed and preserved. Porras-Kim is interested in the politics and policies museums adopt in the contemporary moment and how they negotiate with problematic pasts. The artist often uses letters as exhibition captions – sometimes written to institutions propositions for approaches to improve the conditions of their artefacts – creating an epistolary narrative to guide visitors through the space and her works. She also uncovers and proposes innovative tactics through which artefacts can be liberated and escape from museum vitrines, archives and storage facilities; exiting through cremation, being eaten by mould and running within the stomach of spores, and fleeing as particles or fragments, detritus collected following an exhibition deinstall. The outcomes of Porras-Kim’s research, made in response to museum collections, are realised in a range of media, from sculptures and sound works to large-scale drawings. ...

Commonwealth and Council is a gallery in Koreatown, Los Angeles founded in 2010. Our program is rooted in our commitment to explore how a community of artists can sustain our co-existence through generosity and hospitality. Commonwealth and Council celebrates our manifold identities and experiences through the shared dialogue of art—championing practices by women, queer, POC, and our ally artists to build counter-histories that reflect our individual and collective realities.