MINNEAPOLIS, MN.- The Walker Art Center opened Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night, the artists first major museum survey. Kims (US, b. 1980; based in Berlin) expansive practice is grounded in a deep exploration of sound, from its function, to how it is physically experienced, and to its primacy in how we engage with each other and within our broader social constructs. Using musical notations, infographics, her native American Sign Language (ASL), written language, and the body, Kim captures the complexities of communication and invites audiences to experience the vibrancy of Deaf culture. All Day All Night reveals the humor, poignancy, and incisive quality of Kims oeuvre through more than 100 works, including drawings, site-specific murals, paintings, video installations, and sculptures, produced between 2011 and 2026. The exhibition will remain on view through August 30, 2026.
The exhibition also features a new mural being shown in the US for the first time, titled Unfortunately, We Cannot (2025). The mural reflects Kims recurring life experience of being told that an exhibition or event cannot be made accessible with language like: Unfortunately, we cannot. and We have no budget. Kim has noted that these denials of reasonable accommodations have often given her anxiety dreams. To sign dream in ASL, one points their index finger in front of their head, then flexes and straightens it while moving their hand upward and outward, ending with the finger in a hook shape. The half circles depicted in this mural reference this sign. The work also engages with the subject of trauma: to sign trauma, one moves their index finger across their forehead as if leaving a cut or a scar. Here, the artist uses a variation of the sign with four fingers to both visually emphasize her depth of feeling and to transform it into a score by scratching her fingers across the walls of the space.
All Day All Night is co-organized by the Walker Art Center and the Whitney Museum of American Art, where it first premiered in winter 2025. It is curated by Pavel Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts and Collections Strategy, Walker Art Center; Jennie Goldstein, Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator of the Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art; and Tom Finkelpearl, independent curator; with support from Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Walker Art Center, and Rose Pallone, Curatorial Assistant, Whitney Museum of American Art. The exhibition is accompanied by a major monograph that offers the most comprehensive overview of Kims work to date, and which is available in digital braille and as an audio book with visual descriptions.
We are thrilled to present Christine Sun Kims first survey exhibition, said Pyś, With razor-sharp wit, Kims wide-ranging and experimental practice celebrates the artistic and expressive possibilities across many forms language, revealing how uneven access shapes everyday life.