Asawa at her solo exhibition at San Francisco Arts Commission Capricorn Asunder gallery, CA, 1976. (Photo by Bruce Sherman, artwork © 2026 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. Courtesy of David Zwirner)
It’s already been a big year for the late artist Ruth Asawa. In March, her landmark retrospective arrived at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, following highly successful runs at both the MoMA in New York and SFMOMA in the Bay Area. This momentum, though, is far from over. On May 9, 2026, the family-run Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. (RAL Inc.) will open the first permanent venue dedicated to the pioneering modernist, all while marking the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1926.
The 1,714-square-foot gallery will be situated at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. Inaugurating the space is Ruth Asawa: Untitled, an exhibition co-curated by the artist’s daughters, Aiko Cuneo and Addie Lanier, and whose title is a clever nod to Asawa’s habit of leaving her pieces unnamed. Like her retrospective, Untitled will offer an overview of the artist’s multidisciplinary practice, encompassing everything from rarely-exhibited looped- and tied-wire sculptures to cast artworks, paperfolds, watercolors, and drawings. Future exhibitions will similarly celebrate Asawa’s lesser-known and never-before-seen works, alongside pieces by her friends and mentors, including Josef and Anni Albers, Imogen Cunningham, and Ray Johnson, among others.
Aside from its unprecedented exhibition program, the space is also significant due to its specific location. Asawa spent over six decades in San Francisco, fostering a close relationship with the city’s art world. In fact, the artist boasts several permanent installations throughout the Bay Area: Andrea in Ghiradelli Square, San Francisco Fountain near Union Square, and a wire sculpture in the de Young Museum’s tower, to name just a few. This new gallery seeks to exemplify the artist’s undeniable impact upon the local stage and beyond, highlighting how she engaged with her surroundings and, in turn, how they informed her own practice.
“San Francisco was Asawa’s home for more than 60 years, during which time she developed a unique artistic language, raised her family, and became a leading advocate for the arts and art education both locally and nationally,” Henry Weverka, the artist’s grandson and president of RAL Inc., told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Opening a permanent space here in her adopted hometown seems like a wonderful way to celebrate her centennial for many years to come.”
Asawa, who died in 2013 at 87 years old, is best known for her looped-wire sculptures, many of which incorporate organic and naturalistic motifs. She first developed her signature technique for looping wire while enrolled in the Black Mountain College near Asheville, N.C., after World War II. In 2024, she was posthumously awarded the National Medal of the Arts by former President Joe Biden. Her ongoing retrospective will be on view at the Guggenheim in Bilbao through September 13, 2026, after which it will travel to Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland.
“Over the course of 50 plus tours of the Retrospective at SFMOMA, the question I got asked most was, ‘What was it like to grow up with Ruth Asawa as your grandmother?’” Weverka added. “I hope the intimate exhibitions at our new Minnesota Street Project space give visitors a sense of who she was as an artist, mother and grandmother and arts advocate.”
To stay updated about the new space and its upcoming exhibitions, visit Ruth Asawa’s website.
Ruth Asawa’s family-run foundation will open the first permanent venue solely dedicated to the late artist, who is best known for her looped-wire sculptures.
Asawa in the living room of her Noe Valley home, San Francisco, CA, c. 1995. (Artwork © 2026 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., Courtesy of David Zwirner)
Nestled in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, the gallery will debut with an exhibition on May 9, 2026, offering visitors an intimate glimpse into Asawa’s legendary practice.
Asawa sitting on the deck of her Noe Valley home with cast bronze and electroplated sculptures, San Francisco, CA, c. 1969. (Photo: Xavier Lanier, artwork © 2026 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. Courtesy of David Zwirner)
Exhibition Information:
Ruth Asawa
Ruth Asawa: Untitled
May 9, 2026–June 20, 2026
Minnesota Street Project
1275 Minnesota Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, U.S.A.
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