Private Curator Tours of Ruth Asawa: Citizen of the Universe

“Art will make people better, more highly skilled in thinking and improving whatever business one goes into, or whatever occupation. It makes a person broader.” Ruth Asawa

Join a curator-led exhibition tour at Modern Art Oxford of Citizen of the Universe, the first public solo exhibition in Europe of work by visionary artist, educator and activist Ruth Asawa (1926-2013). The exhibition features her signature hanging sculptures in looped and tied wire, and celebrates her holistic integration of art, education and community engagement through displaying prints, drawings, letters and photographs. Asawa called for an inclusive and revolutionary vision for art’s role in society. As a teenager, she lived in an internment camp due to the forced relocation and incarceration for some 120,000 Japanese-Americans by the US government on the eve of World War II. Despite the extreme conditions she learned artistic skills from professional artists and left in the firm belief that art can be life-changing and a positive force for social good.

Photo: Imogen Cunningham, Ruth Asawa 6, 1957. © 2022 Imogen Cunningham Trust. Artwork © 2021 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. / ARS, NY and DACS, London. Courtesy David Zwirner

Tours at 5.30pm and 7pm – Free, booking essential