Future Exhibits
The Light That Grows Here
The Light That Grows Here
Robin Kang
September 26, 2025
- January 4, 2026
Central Library - 710 W. César Chávez St.
Gallery (2nd Floor)
About the Exhibit
Exhibition Reception: Friday, September 26, 2025, 7pm-9pm
The Light That Grows Here features new textile works honoring the healing spirit of native Texas plants by multidisciplinary artist and weaver Robin Kang. Rooted in folklore, herbal traditions, and digital innovation, Kang’s Jacquard-loom weavings merge botanical motifs with motherboard-like designs, exploring the ties between nature, technology, and spirituality.
Using plant-dyed fibers, iridescent synthetics, and digital sketches, Kang crafts textiles that bridge ancestral weaving traditions with contemporary computation. Her work draws from studies with global master weavers and ceremonial plant practices, transforming weaving into ritual. The Light That Grows Here invites reflection on craft’s power to reconnect us with ecology and the unseen wisdom of flora.
Still Waters Within: A Sound Bath for Recovery: In response to the recent flooding tragedy in the Texas Hill Country, artist and sound healer Robin Kang, together with Alexandra Smith of The Tranquility School, will offer a special Sound Bath and gallery activation on Wednesday, September 24, from 5:30–7:30pm at the Central Library Gallery.
From Plant to Pattern: Spinning, Weaving & Natural Dyes: November 2, 2025
Join the Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin for a lively and interactive fiber arts demonstration at the Austin Public Library’s Central Gallery. In celebration of The Light That Grows Here, a solo exhibition by artist Robin Kang, WSSA members will share the rich traditions of spinning, weaving, and natural dyeing through live demonstrations and informal conversations.
About the Artist
Texas-born Robin Kang merges ancestral textile traditions with digital innovation, using a Jacquard loom to weave botanical and circuit-like motifs. Her work explores the interplay of nature, technology, and sacred knowledge, informed by global weaving practices and initiations into Amazonian shamanic lineages.
A 2017 NYFA Fellow, she has exhibited at the Queens Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, and others. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and ArtNews. Kang holds an MFA from SAIC and has taught at RISD, Parsons, and Tyler School of Art.
Image credit
RHIZOMATIC
RHIZOMATIC
Essentials Creative
October 2, 2025
- October 7, 2025
Central Library - 710 W. César Chávez St.
Roof Garden (6th Floor)
About the Exhibit
RHIZOMATIC
Exploring Texas Native Plants through Indigenous and Immigrant Perspectives
Essentials Creative invites the public to experience Rhizomatic—an immersive installation of 10–15 double-sided tapestries exploring native Texas plants through artistic interpretation and symbolic storytelling. Each tapestry weaves together contemporary Indigenous and immigrant perspectives with botanical research, creating layered connections between culture, ecology, and reciprocity with the land. Visitors are invited to see familiar native plants in unique ways and to interact with an installation that honors ancestral knowledge while inspiring future relationships with the land.
TEXAS NATIVE PLANTS REPRESENTED:
•Maguey - Ancient sustainer reimagined through contemporary Latinx and Indigenous lenses
•Nopal - Border-crossing survivor, symbol of resilience for immigrant communities
•Purple Coneflower - Medicine transformed into metaphor for cultural healing
•Amaranth - Sacred grain reborn as symbol of cultural revival and resistance
•Chili Pequin - Wild fire carrier, connecting ancestral knowledge to contemporary identity
About the Artist
Essentials Creative: Indigenous American, Latin American, and Asian artists creating new narratives about belonging and place. We blend cultural reclamation with artistic innovation, building contemporary folklore that honors the past while imagining alternative relationships with Texas landscapes.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department