Thaddaeus Ropac Presents Zadie Xa's Multisensory Installation at Esker Foundation
On July 1, 2026, Thaddaeus Ropac announced a new exhibition by Zadie Xa at the Esker Foundation. The installation combines two bodies of work: 'Rough Hands Weave a Knife' (2024), a series of paintings and sculptures, and 'Moonlit Confessions Across Deep Sea Echoes: Your Ancestors Are Whales, and Earth Remembers Everything' (2025), created with collaborator Benito Mayor Vallejo. Arranged across three hand-painted rooms, the immersive environment features bronze human-animal hybrids on a hexagonal plinth, paintings using the Korean bojagi technique, and figurines referencing Korean funerary dolls. Xa draws on memories of the Pacific Northwest, her Korean heritage, and folk tales to explore diaspora, mythology, and shamanistic rituals.
The Signal
The exhibition marks a continued institutional presence for Xa, whose interdisciplinary practice blends performance, sculpture, and painting into singular, narrative-driven environments. By weaving ancestral motifs with contemporary installation, she positions folk art as a language of resistance and hope. The collaboration with Vallejo deepens the project's layered storytelling, while the Esker Foundation's cavernous spaces amplify the dreamlike, otherworldly quality of the work. For collectors and curators, Xa's growing visibility signals a rising interest in diasporic and ritual-based contemporary art.
- Artists: Zadie Xa, Benito Mayor Vallejo
- Galleries: Thaddaeus Ropac, Esker Foundation
- Locations: Calgary
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