Tidawhitney Lek

The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Episode No. 681 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Tidawhitney Lek.

Lek is featured in "Spirit House" at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. The exhibition considers how 33 contemporary artists of Asian descent challenge the boundary between life and death through art, including how the spiritual relates to diaspora, connections to ancestral homelands, and the experience of feeling present within multiple cultures and multiple geographies. The show's curatorial framework was inspired by spirit houses, small devotional structures found throughout Thailand that provide shelter for the supernatural. The exhibition was curated by Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander with Kathryn Cua. It is on view through January 26, 2025. An excellent exhibition catalogue, titled "Spirit House: Hauntings in Contemporary Art of the Asian Diaspora," was published by the Cantor and Gregory R. Miller & Co. Amazon and Bookshop offer it for $45-50.

Discussed on the program:

• Martha Rosler's "House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home" series may be viewed on the website of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
• The work of Amir Fallah and Annie Lapin.
• Lek's website.

Lek is a southern California-based, Cambodian-American artist whose work examines narratives surrounding and the daily experiences of a first-generation American born to immigrant parents. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Made in LA biennial at the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami. Her first museum solo show was at the Long Beach Museum of Art last year.

Instagram: Tidawhitney Lek, Tyler Green.