The Light That Grows Here
Robin Kang
Friday, September 26, 2025
- Sunday, 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: Sunday, November 2, 2025, 1pm-3pm
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.
SacRED Seeds • Eternal Blooms // Semillas Sagradas • Flores Eternales: Sunday, November 9th, 3:00–4:00 PM
As part of The Light That Grows Here and in conjunction with the Austin Studio Tour, local artist Lacey Richter will present a durational performance within the exhibition space. Drawing inspiration from the show’s themes of native plant wisdom, ecology, and spiritual interconnectedness, SacRED Seeds • Eternal Blooms weaves movement, gesture, and symbolic ritual to embody cycles of transformation and renewal.
Through a series of intimate vignettes incorporating seeds, flowers and prayerful meditation, Richter holds space in honor of the recent Hill Country floods and all who have been affected. Viewers are invited to bear witness to their own grief through participation as a sacred offering, creating a shared moment of remembrance and healing.
This immersive, site-specific work transforms the gallery into a living, breathing environment where art, nature, and human presence merge.
The performance is free & open to the public.
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.