In Conversation: Selva Aparicio and Alison Gass

On Friday, November 14, Gallery Wendi Norris will host a conversation between artist Selva Aparicio and Alison Gass, Founding Director & Chief Curator of the Institute of Contemporary San Francisco, at the opening reception of , Aparicio's debut exhibition with the gallery.

Known for her poignant and unexpected transfiguration of organic, often delicate and overlooked materials, Aparicio creates works that serve as profound meditations on memory, grief, resistance, and renewal. Exploring the boundaries between mourning and materiality, intimacy and decay, her exhibition will feature spatial interventions that embody the rigor, laboriousness, and painstaking precision of her physical process, as well as the quiet, emotional power at the heart of her deeply personal practice.

This event is free; however, reservations are recommended.

Selva Aparicio: What Remains is on view at Gallery Wendi Norris November 14, 2025 – January 10, 2026.

About the speakers

Working across sculpture and installation, Selva Aparicio (b. 1987, Barcelona; based in New York) examines the boundaries between mourning and materiality, intimacy and decay. Her practice transforms overlooked materials—ranging from cemetery flowers and cicada wings to human hair and cadavers—into works that hold space for grief, memory, and rebirth. With a unique sensitivity to the ephemeral, Aparicio explores the body as both a site of loss and transformation, reimagining cycles of life and death through time-based materials.

Aparicio’s work has been shown internationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; The Museum of Art and Design, NY; The International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT; Can Mario Museum, Palafrugell, Spain; Kyoto International Craft Center, Japan; Instituto Cervantes, New York, NY; and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain, among others. She completed a permanent public commission, At Rest, for the Beaufort 2024 Triennial in Belgium. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2025 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Visual Arts, the 2023 Burke Prize from the Museum of Arts and Design, the 2022 Artadia Award, and the 3Arts Award/HMS Fund.

Aparicio holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. She studied sculpture at Escola Massana in Barcelona and is currently Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Alfred University in Alfred, NY.

Alison Gass is ICA San Francisco’s Founding Executive Director. Her leadership in museums has reflected a sustained commitment to building globally minded and community-engaged exhibitions and programs, and diversifying museums’ collections, exhibition programs, staff and visitorship. Gass was appointed the Dana Feitler Director of the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago where she launched the Feitler Center for Academic Engagement. Previously, she was the Chief Curator at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, and Assistant Curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. ICA SF isn’t her first “startup” museum. After leaving SFMOMA, Gass served as Founding Chief Curator at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, where she helped launch the new building, recruited a staff, and established a global contemporary art program. She holds degrees in Art History from Columbia University and the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU.

The ICA SF has relocated from Dogpatch—one of San Francisco’s most dynamic creative hubs—to The Cube, a landmark building in the heart of downtown. This move places ICA SF at the forefront of the city’s downtown revitalization, reinforcing its role as a cultural catalyst. In collaboration with Vornado Realty Trust, ICA SF is reimagining exhibition formats, leveraging The Cube’s distinctive architecture to push the boundaries of contemporary art experiences. As a free museum at the city’s core, ICA SF—under Gass’s leadership—is pioneering a bold new model for museums, rethinking philanthropy, funding structures, collecting practices, and operational transparency.

Image credits: Portrait of Selva Aparicio by Kelsey Sucena; Portrait of Alison Gass by Ulysses Ortega.

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