Behind the Scenes with a Curator — and Why Art Matters for Teens

My name is Zack, and I’m a high school intern at TeenTix LA! A couple of weeks ago, I got the incredible opportunity to interview curator Kris Kuramitsu about her recent show, her curating process, and how it all relates to the work we do at TeenTix LA. 

Kris is the curator of a show at the Armory Center for The Arts, titled “my hands are monsters who believe in magic.” The exhibit highlights Asian American contemporary artists whose work explores themes of history, identity, and self-understanding. 

About a month ago, my family and I took the drive to Pasadena to visit the armory for ourselves and experience the art firsthand—it was amazing! Each work was both unique to the artists’ perspective while also helping create the greater context that the show aimed to emphasize. I deeply appreciated the work Kris did to bring together Asian American artists of intensely varying backgrounds, identities, and perspectives.

Besides myself, my family also loved the show—my mom described it as both fascinating and somewhat disturbing. In light of this interview, I’ve written some short excerpts from some of the many insights she was able to share:

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Q: What role did the arts play in your life as a teenager?

A: My parents were amazing, but they were both in the sciences, and never took me to museums or exposed me to art at all, because that's just not what they knew or not what they were interested in. But when I was a teenager and in high school, I had some really amazing art teachers that exposed me to painting, drawing, and especially photography—I was really into photography as a teenager. I had really great teachers who not only showed me how to make art, but took us to museums; we would go to see art together, and that just completely blew my mind.

I had never really been inside an art museum before I was in high school, so that was my introduction to it. I was so interested in the ways that different people saw the world around me—in an entirely different way than I did. I had to know more, I had to see more, and I started getting really, really into it, so I ended up going into art history as a college student.

Q: Why do you think it’s important for teens to have access to the arts?

A: That is a very good question, and I actually am the parent to two teenagers! I think that, especially in a world that is—especially for teenagers—so saturated, you know, you're sort of bombarded by visual information and images. I think that it's so important to have access to really meaningful and kind of deliberately mind expanding things, like art and creativity.

Teenagers are at a point where it's so important to kind of see how big and expansive the world really is, and sometimes it's really hard to get that sense when you're going to school, and you've got your sort of routine. I think being exposed to art, and the ways people see the world in a way that's entirely different from your experience of the world, is incredibly important and super valuable for everybody.

Q: What is your process when it comes to finding artists for an exhibition? Is there any advice you have for young artists in regards to this?

I try to see as much art as I can, especially in a place like LA, where there are so many great artists—a really big part of my job is just trying to be as open to seeing as much as I can! I’ll also go to an artist's studio and talk to them about who they talk to, and who they are. So you talk to a lot of people: you ask artists whose work they like, and whose work they admire. And that way you go visit one person and that branches out to four people, and then another four; it becomes a really wide, beautiful net. 

So for artists—artists at any stage—you're just going to want to show as much as you can, show in as many places as you can, and find places for you and your friends to show work. That's really the best way to get your work out there and have as many people as possible see it. For young artists especially, just being able to show your work, get people to see it, and talk to people about it is really useful and helpful for both the people looking at your work and for you as an artist.

Q: What was the core narrative of the show that you were trying to convey?

A: I was really interested in the work I was seeing that really complicated the idea of ‘a sort of representation of person.’ Sometimes it was self representation, but the work was never straightforward. There would be a really complicated way of looking at a subject and identity. And especially in media like photography, where the portrait is like the most basic thing: you have a camera, you take a picture, and it's a straightforward representation of a person. But these photographers and sculptors approached figuration and the figure always with a great deal of skepticism about ‘representation’ itself.

There would be a depiction of a figure, but it would be partial, or there would be no figure at all—but it would be a portrait. I was really interested in these very complicated depictions of a figure or subject. And they were artists who were doing this in the material itself: in a very physical analog way; they weren't doing digital manipulation or anything like that. It was almost like a collage approach to making an image, in photography.

And I was also quite interested in a number of sculptors working in ceramics who are literally constructing these very messy, complicated figures, that were either not figures or very partial figures. The show is full of these kinds of highly constructed, multiple, complicated, indirect, depictions of figures. Some of the work that I was really interested in had this approach, which I thought was very productive and meaningful—coming out of the pandemic, Asian American Asian American visibility could be seen as somewhat of a trap, and could even be dangerous, which is certainly the case now. This kind of complicated relationship with visibility plays out in a lot of the work in the exhibition. 

Q: How did you go about finding artists who could accurately reflect the range of diversity within the Asian American community?

A: I think there's a wide range of cultural backgrounds and references with all the artists in the show. I wanted it to really reflect, in many ways, the community and audience of the armory, which is in Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley. So I was very conscious of the fact that the San Gabriel Valley is home to a huge Asian American population, and it’s made up of people from different places. I wanted to reflect that. And, honestly, I think a lot of the artists in the show also have these really interesting multiple backgrounds that are, you know, really just a reflection of who we are as a country, and that was really important as well.

Q: Is there anything you want a young person interested in the arts to take away from our conversation?

Keep making art, and keep showing your art to as many people as possible—especially your friends. Make work together and show each other your work. I think that's the best thing that you can do as a young artist!

Also, I think you should really see as much art as you can. That's why TeenTix LA is so cool! It really encourages people not just to see what they might practice: if you're a painter, also go see a lot of theater or music; because I think contemporary art happens when people work in all kinds of media. It's expansive—that’s the best way to say it. As a young artist, I think you should just try to see as much as you can. So TeenTix LA, it’s brilliant, because that’s really what you all should be doing! 

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I hope that you got as much out of our conversation as I did! I found Kris’ insights to be incredibly valuable, especially as a young artist myself. Learning from an established curator about what I should be doing throughout my journey as a teen artist—such as exhibiting work with friends and talking to lots of people—was a fantastic opportunity. Additionally, I (and Kris herself!) really took note of how much of what she had to say aligned with and was supported by what we do at TeenTix LA; I hope that after reading our conversation, you will continue to do and see more art—TeenTix LA is here to help you with that!

Photo Credit:
Jarod Lew, Blending in Orange, 2024