Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night, Artist’s First Major Survey Exhibition to Open at the Walker Art Center in March
On March 27, the Walker Art Center will open Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night, the artist’s first major museum survey. Kim’s (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 Kim’s 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.
On occasion of the exhibition’s opening, the Walker will host a conversation between Christine Sun Kim and curator and writer Christine Y. Kim on Saturday, March 28, 2026.
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 Kim’s work to date, and which is available in digital braille and as an audio book with visual descriptions.
All Day All Night takes its title from both early and recent works that visualize the ASL hand movement of the sun moving over the horizon and then dipping below it. At the Walker, the exhibition will unfold in loose chronological order, while emphasizing core themes that the artist has explored across time and medium, including Deaf lived experience, the politics of language, the importance of family, friends and community, the intricacies of identity, and how we navigate social encounters and spaces. The Walker’s presentation will also feature several major works not included at the Whitney, including the floor installations Shoegazing (2020) and Oh Me Oh My (2022). These significant works extend understanding of Kim’s distinct approach to drawing in space, enhancing the physical experience of her work.
The exhibition will also feature a new mural being shown in the US for the first time, titled Unfortunately, We Cannot (2025). The mural reflects Kim’s 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.
Together the many featured works trace Kim’s career to date, from documentation of her early experimental performances to her intimate drawings, and to her most recent large-scale murals. Leveraging a spectrum of media, she calls attention to the politics of sound and challenges the social currency of oral languages through poetic, humorous, and sharp observations. In drawings—her primary medium—and videos, Kim works to make sense of constructs that have and continue to shape her life, using musical notations, infographics, ASL, written language, and other visual and auditory references and mechanisms. Among the works in All Day All Night are rarely seen early drawings, such as All Day. All Night. (2012), Pianoiss…issmo (Worse Finish) (2012), and Feedback Aftermath (2012); major multi-part drawing series, including Future Base (2016) and Degrees of Deaf Rage (2018); and several significant video installations, such as Tables and Windows (2016), made in collaboration with artist Thomas Mader.
The exhibition also explores the interconnectedness of ASL and Deaf culture. Several drawings consider the role that sign language interpreters play in making Kim “sound” different, while others, such as Whatcha Doing, Do Do (2018), compare specific written English words and phrases with their Deaf English (shorthand translations of ASL) counterparts. The large-scale kinetic sculpture made with Thomas Mader, ATTENTION (2022), consists of two fan-powered, arm-shaped appendages that enact the method of attracting attention to oneself or something else in ASL. The arms wave and point at a rock, eroding its surface as they attempt to get attention or bring attention to something repeatedly, a poignant reminder of the power of communication.
Additionally, the participatory installation Game of Skill (2015) invites visitors to take a speaker device and guide its antenna along a wire suspended in this gallery. As a person walks along the wire and holds the device to it, a spoken word text emanates from the speaker. Describing the work, Kim has said: “the audio comes out in a way that’s affected by the way you move, walk, or hold the device. It might be laborious, but it’s meant to make your listening feel unfamiliar and like you’re learning a skill. This partially came from my observation of how hearing people passively and mindlessly listen, which I think is something they often take for granted”.
“We are thrilled to present Christine Sun Kim’s first survey exhibition,” said Pyś, “With razor-sharp wit, Kim’s wide-ranging and experimental practice celebrates the artistic and expressive possibilities across many forms language, revealing how uneven access shapes everyday life”.
About Christine Sun Kim
Christine Sun Kim is an American artist based in Berlin. Kim’s practice considers how sound operates in society, deconstructing the politics of sound and invites exploration of the richness of Deaf culture.
Kim has exhibited and performed internationally, including at the Gwangju Biennale (2023); Secession, Vienna (2023); Queens Museum (2022); Drawing Center (2022); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2021); Manchester International Festival (2021); MIT List Visual Arts Center (2020); Whitney Biennial (2019); Buffalo AKG Art Museum (2019); Art Institute of Chicago (2018); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017); De Appel Arts Center, Amsterdam (2017); Berlin Biennale (2016); Shanghai Biennale (2016); MoMA PS1 (2015); and the Museum of Modern Art (2013), among numerous others. Kim’s awards and fellowships include an MIT Media Lab Fellowship, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Ford and Mellon Foundations’ Disabilities Future Fellowship, and the Prix International d’Art Contemporain of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. Her works are held in numerous prominent collections, including the Walker Art Center, Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Tate Britain; Smithsonian American Art Museum; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
Catalogue
Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night is accompanied by a major monograph co-published by the Walker Art Center and Whitney Museum of American Art. The catalogue features an interview between Kim and the co-curators and three commissioned essays by artist Park McArthur, sound art curator and art historian Seth Kim-Cohen, and designer and leader of MASS Deaf Space and Disability Justice Lab Jeffrey Mansfield. In addition, the book includes a generously illustrated plate section of Kim’s work and an illustrated timeline filled with personal photographs, notes, papers, and documents compiled by curatorial assistants Brandon Eng and Rose Pallone together with the artist to offer an engaging new look at her life and work.
ABOUT THE WALKER ART CENTER
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 16,000 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.
Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night is co-organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Lead support is provided by the Ford Foundation, Teiger Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
The Walker Art Center’s presentation is made possible with major support from the KHR McNeely Family Foundation, thanks to Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely.
Additional support is provided by Lewis Baskerville, Jan Breyer, the Korea Foundation, Michael Peterman and David Wilson, Idee German Schoenheimer, Susan and Rob White, and Rosina Lee Yue.