Alice Wang: Windstorm on Saturn, Basalt Columns, MDMA, Serotonin
February 17-June 5, 2026

International Studio & Curatorial Program, Brooklyn NY

I've been reading Art is Life by Jerry Saltz, a primer of modern and contemporary art of the 90s to now. Sprinkled in between dated exhibition reviews and artist profiles, Jerry offers glimpses of his own argument of art as essential livelihood, now co-opted by corporate forces and the power of money, but unchangingly rooted in the desire and the force to make. "Art is two parts agency and one part inner heat."

With this retroactive perspective, nearly a week after seeing this exhibition at ISCP, I now feel this urge to reflect on the show and my own art making. I spent most of my time in the gallery thinking about the artists process. From the hexagonal ceramic forms surfaced with crawling glazes, to the gravitational stand holding an iron meteorite, the space was part exhibition and part raw materials lab (maybe this is a MICA reference). She is following hexagons as extremely efficient geometrical forms, reoccurring across ecological and planetary ecosystems "from the decades-long storm cloud on Saturn’s North Pole, to the crystallization of basalt columns on Earth, and down to the molecular structures of MDMA and serotonin." I love speculating about the research that artists do to make such scientifically informed work, and I was picturing the possibilities of how she might have organized all this information; does she have an enormous google document? Stacks of notebooks? Sticky notes and strings between them? 150 tabs open on her laptop?

I'm now spending time with Jenny Wu's interview with Wang in Ocula, talking about this show and her work in the New Museum exhibition, New Humans: Memories of the Future (which I'll go see in a few weeks with Liz). I can tell that her sculpture and film have a relatively new relationship with each other. Standing next to each other, they have so much in common, but it feels like they are still getting to know one another. In this show, I think they are soulmates.

I can't believe we nearly left this gallery without seeing the film! I would not have been able to comprehend Wang's research practice without it. Andrew reminded me that he was hoping to see it, but it was shut off. We had arrived to the gallery on a weekday, it was open but perhaps no visitors were expected. The staff at ISCP were using the laptop to prepare for their auction I think, but when we asked they graciously set up the film for us to watch before we left. And thank god!

I felt completely outside my body while we watched. The quality of the filming was natural, accompanied by Wang's voiceover. Narratively, it felt like a studio visit on acid (or MDMA!). There was this thread that we followed throughout, taking us from focusing on the astonishing landscapes to the story of her grandfather's double life, and a rising intensity of the grounding beat that was supported by deep sea visuals. The journey was so intense, maybe mirroring what it feels like to get high. While I was watching the film, on high volume, in that dark space, I think my serotonin receptors were being activated in crazy ways. I started to feel high myself. Is this what ketamine therapy feels like?

I am so looking forward to seeing Wang's work at the New Museum. Her practice is so robustly rooted in experience and her process is pursuit of experience. This pursuit may be endless, impossible to fulfill- touching hexagonal basalt structures might not result in understanding them, and doing MDMA may not produce the ego death desired, but I think the chase is her strength. Her desire is palpable, and when things are just out of reach, desire is a driving force.