Blas Isasi explores Peru’s complex history through sculptural works in ‘Currents 125’

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 15, 2026—Sculptural works by Peruvian artist Blas Isasi will be on view starting next month in the 125th iteration of the “Currents” series at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

“Currents 125: Blas Isasi” opens Feb. 6 with an artist talk at 6 pm in the museum’s Farrell Auditorium. The free exhibition is on view through Aug. 9 in Peper Martin Gallery 210 and Nancy and Kenneth Kranzberg Gallery 211.

Using a range of materials and colors informed by ancient Andean cosmology and the landscape of the Peruvian desert, Isasi’s work in the exhibition reimagines the violent meeting between two radically different worldviews—those of the Indigenous Andeans and the colonizing Europeans—in early 16th-century Peru. “Currents 125” offers a meditative interrogation of Peru’s complex and layered history that does not romanticize ancient Andean culture. Instead, Isasi proposes an alternative model for understanding the world in the troubled present.

The exhibition’s central installation consists of two large, angular steel sculptures surrounded by rocklike shapes coated with sand, which evoke the Peruvian desert. On top of these sandy forms are carved bone sculptures with surreal body fragments—an eye or fingers—and hair extensions. Brightly colored elements evoke the Andean landscape. The presence of hair and bone, with their sacred meanings in Andean culture, suggests that objects can be vessels for spirits. The two steel sculptures, existing alongside each other in an uneasy tension, embody the cultural hybridity resulting from the encounter between Andean and European cultures.

The second space features a Chincha Inka balance from the museum’s collection, which was used to weigh objects in a pre-Hispanic barter economy. It is bordered by sandstone sculptures with aluminum foil pieces, which resemble Andean metal artifacts and, again, suggest a spiritual presence. Across the gallery, in dialogue, is a Western-type scale with a balancing weight of one kilogram, a reference to the metric system as an archetypal symbol of science in the Western Enlightenment. Mutilated aluminum fingers sit on this scale as a memory of colonial violence.

About the artist

Isasi is a Peruvian sculptor who currently resides in North Carolina, where he is an assistant professor of 3D foundations for the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Isasi was the recipient of the 2024-25 Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Fellowship, which included a residency at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and this exhibition.

Founded in 1978, the “Currents” series serves as a laboratory for emerging and mid-career artists to create and exhibit new work. Featured artists have included Peter Doig, Leonardo Drew, Ellen Gallagher, Frank Gehry, Donald Judd, Glenn Ligon, Julie Mehretu, Faith Ringgold, Richard Serra and Cindy Sherman.

“Currents 125: Blas Isasi” is curated by Simon Kelly, SLAM’s curator of modern and contemporary art. This presentation is generously supported in part by the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Endowment Fund.

CONTACT: Molly Morris, molly.morris@slam.org, 314.655.5250