The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry

September 18, 2026 - January 17, 2027

From the Contemporary Austin:
"The Contemporary Austin is pleased to announce The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry. Presented across both floors of the museum’s downtown location the Jones Center, this marks the largest exhibition in the United States to date celebrating the boundary-breaking works of art by Moki Cherry (b. 1943, Koler, Sweden; d. 2009, Tågarp, Sweden). Organized by Ars Nova Workshop, the Austin show follows a celebrated run in Philadelphia at The Fabric Workshop and Museum.
Related programming will accompany the exhibition, including a piano duet performance with Moki’s granddaughter, multi-disciplinary artist and musician Naima Nefertari (aka Karlsson) and Mexico City-based pianist and composer Ana Ruíz, followed by a conversation between Naima and celebrated filmmaker Ephraim Asili—featuring a preview into Asili’s in-progress documentary Don and Moki: Organic Music Society. Additionally, an ongoing series of Deep Listening Sessions will be staged within the exhibition centered on themed vinyl playlists inspired by Moki Cherry and the music of her longtime partner and artistic collaborator, jazz musician Don Cherry (1936–1995).
left: Moki and Don Cherry teaching a school workshop, 1973. Featured in the background: Malkauns Raga, 1973 [left]; Dina Kanagina, 1972 [right]. Cherry archives. Courtesy of the Estate of Moki Cherry; right: Moki Cherry, Dina Kanagina, 1972. Textile appliqué tapestry (silk, cotton, mixed fabrics), 107 1/2 x 59 1/16 inches. Photo: Anders Sune Berg, Galleri Nicolai Wallner.
“Home is stage, stage is home.” – Moki Cherry
For Moki, life was her canvas. From her background in fashion and painting to her later collaborations across a range of media with musicians and children, this exhibition showcases the breadth of her artistic expression and the lived experiences that inspired her artwork.
Dissolving the boundaries between home and stage, art and everyday life, Moki developed an interdisciplinary practice while living and working between Sweden and New York in the mid-1960s. Together with her partner, legendary jazz musician Don Cherry, they created immersive, joyful happenings under the banners of “Movement Incorporated” and “Organic Music.” Their collaborations entwined music, theater, performance, and visual art in experimental ways, forging hybrid audiovisual spectacles that challenged hierarchies in music and art, creating a total experience that defied genre.
Alongside their young children, including Neneh and Eagle-Eye, they often made their home on the road while traveling between performances. Shaped by an itinerant life, Moki’s work drew from global artistic traditions without being confined to a single cultural lineage, and explored themes of ecology, spirituality, feminism, and the home as both stage and subject.
left: Moki Cherry, Organic Music (Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, Moki, G. Pramaggiore) (Handmade Tour poster), 1975. Textile appliqué (silk, cotton, mixed fabrics), 40 1/4 x 27 1/4 inches. Photo: Anders Sune Berg, courtesy Galleri Nicolai Wallner; right: Moki Cherry, Don Cherry’s Top, 1969. Mixed fabrics, 27 9/16 x 23 5/8 inches. Photo: Tom Van Eynde.
Bringing together some of her most significant artworks in a range of media, including painting, ceramics, textiles, film, and documentation of performances and workshops, the exhibition will also include a trove of rare archival ephemera and an excerpt from Ephraim Asili’s forthcoming film Don & Moki: Organic Music Society. The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry surveys how Moki’s radical, genre defying vision proposed new models for creating, learning, and collaboration that continue to resonate today.
“I am thrilled to bring this incredibly rich and important exhibition to Austin,” says sharon maidenberg, Ernest and Sarah Butler Executive Director and CEO, The Contemporary Austin. “The project brings together so many cultural nodes across music, history, performance, and visual arts — it’s a project we believe will deeply resonate with the local community as well as visitors to our city.”
“It has been an honor and an inspiration to work with the Estate of Moki Cherry and Ars Nova Workshop to bring Moki’s world to Austin,” comments Alex Klein, The Contemporary’s Deborah Dupré Head Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs. “Her practice offers a radically inclusive vision for the arts and society that is nonhierarchical, interdisciplinary, participatory, and collaborative.”
The Living Temple: The World of Moki Cherry is organized by Ars Nova Workshop, Philadelphia in partnership with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. The exhibition is curated by Mark Christman, Executive and Artistic Director, Ars Nova Workshop. The presentation at The Contemporary Austin is organized by
Alex Klein, Deborah Dupré Head Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, with assistance from Julie Le, Assistant Curator."

Reception September 18, 2026 | 6:30 - 9:30 pm

The Contemporary Austin
700 Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701
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