Hyundai Motor's third exhibition under its long-term partnership with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, "Hyundai Terrace Commission: Kelly Akashi," opened on Saturday and will run through August 23.
The Hyundai Terrace Commission is an exhibition program that Hyundai Motor (005380) and the Whitney Museum have conducted since 2024 to provide artists and curators with new opportunities for creative experimentation. The program presents large-scale installation works across various genres including sculpture and multimedia on the museum's fifth-floor outdoor terrace each year.
Kelly Akashi, the third artist to participate in the Hyundai Terrace Commission, was born in the United States in 1983 and is currently based in Los Angeles. She is known for exploring the finitude of life and existence through materials with physical properties such as glass, bronze, and stone.
The exhibition takes as its starting point the chimney—the only structure remaining after a wildfire in northern Los Angeles in January last year destroyed the artist's home and studio. The central work, "Monument (Altadena) (2026)," is an installation that reconstructs the chimney and the walkway leading to it using glass bricks. It transforms the Whitney Museum's fifth-floor terrace into a contemplative space for remembering traces of the fire, guiding viewers to reflect on survival, loss, and the incompleteness of what remains.
"Inheritance (Distressed) (2026)," installed on one side of the terrace, was inspired by her grandmother's lace doily—a small decorative mat made by needle-knitting cotton or linen—which was also lost in the same fire. Through this work, the artist directly poses the question: "How do we treat the legacies we inherit, and what do we choose to preserve as memory?"
The material exploration of "traces, memory, and lingering resonance" running through the exhibition extends into video. The animation "Remnants (Constellations) (2026)" is screened on a large media wall on the outdoor terrace, expanding the sensory experience in dialogue with the installation works.
"Reconstruction is not simply restoration, but a practice that symbolizes devoted labor and dialogue with history," Akashi said. "The process of stacking bricks one by one projects memory itself—meaning is revived through constant attention and patience."
She added, "Each brick contains a record of the labor and transformation it has undergone, and together they become a new existence that holds traces of the past."
A Hyundai Motor spokesperson said, "We hope this exhibition, which aligns with the Hyundai Terrace Commission's aim to deliver artistic inspiration to more people, will serve as an opportunity to reexamine the relationship between individuals and communities and explore the possibilities of genuine solidarity."
Hyundai Motor maintains partnerships with the Whitney Museum, Tate in the United Kingdom, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Recently, the company has also been supporting the sustainable development of the art ecosystem and expanding access to culture and arts through a new partnership called "Hyundai Translocal Series," aimed at revitalizing regional museums in Korea.