似曾相识 | Dance, in Theater with Window | May 2 - July 11, 2026
An installation by Yiming Clara

Though easily translated as “déjà vu,” 似曾相识 is a Chinese idiomatic phrase whose literal translation leans closer to “it is as if we have known each other before,” suggesting two subjects and their potential relationality. Yet a precise ambiguity suffuses the phrase as it holds both conditions simultaneously: the feeling directed towards a situation or place, and that towards another person.

Yiming Clara is interested in how opening up the exactingness of things allows us to renegotiate our relations to the world and to others. The exhibition’s dual titles do not translate one another but rather move in parallel, inviting us to notice how the meaning of things become mutable depending on what they sit beside. In the installation, familiar forms—theatre chairs, a shoe rack, scenes in a film—are constructed and arranged so that their functions are reorientated to create new situations that recalibrate the relationships between the viewer, object, and space. Objects dwell on the verge of recognition, where meaning surfaces only through the encounter with viewers and in the form of a question.

似曾相识 | Dance, in Theater with Window explores the exhibition space as a site of social choreography, where the ways we are made to move, see, and be seen shape the way things come to appear as art. For the artist, the exhibition title points to the dance that surfaces, a performance we don’t see but instead step into, asking: What are you moved by? Or actually, what is moving you?

Yiming Clara is an artist raised in Beijing, living and working in Berkeley. She is interested in the language in things beyond words, and the things that can’t fit squarely within language. With an interest in how we move about in the world between those surfaces of material and of social construction, her work takes impressions of the familiar as medium and constructs situations that open onto new potential worlds.

Virtual Crush | May 2 - September 19, 2026

Melissa Broder, Arvida Byström, Claudia Hart, Kira Kutcher, Kim Laughton, Eva Papamargariti and Signe Pierce
Curated by LaTurbo Avedon

Sagebrush Creativity Altar in the Slash library | A project by Jam | June 25 - August 12, 2026

We’re excited to announce that Sagebrush Creativity Altar——a miniature art gallery inside of a repurposed newspaper box initiated by Jam——will live in our library through August 12. For the first exhibition, Beginners, Jam’s friends, family, and acquaintances try something new.

Artists: Ali Mowry, Aliza Wingo, Anthony Eslick, Beenie Bal, Bill Zindel, Celeste Malatesta, Chris Grunder, Chris Johanson, Colin McAllister, Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh, Efe Ozmen, Elliot Eslick, Emma Peyton, Hailey Browne, Hunter Coyne, Isaac Vazquez Avila , Jean McElvane, Jam, Kate Laster, Liam Golden, Linda Ralleca, M. Andrée, Malachi Wingo, Marcus Shriver, Mariah Wingo, Martine Matejczyk, Maxine Schoefer-Wulf, Medyna Harfouche, Morgan Quick, Ocean Escalanti, Paul Moshammer, Roslynn Axtell, Serena Pascual, Shangway Hsu, Sophia Monet Dutra, Steph Kudisch, Tara Neuffer, Tony Zhang, and Vincent Cassidy Mai.

Many Thanks to Linda Ralleca, Chris Ringer, Emma Peyton, Jorge Chaparro, Jillian Goodwin, Maria Fortuno, Signographics, Coyne Stair Inc., Madison Paige, Sophia Monet Dutra, Mia Polo, Dick Slivers.

Slash is an artist-run 501c(3) nonprofit exhibition space founded by Ana İpek Saygı in 2018 to advance and promote the expanding field of contemporary art in San Francisco. Slash brings together local, national, and international artists through guest-curated and open call-based exhibitions, accompanied by publications and public programs.

Image:

Kira Kutcher, Unconditional.obfuscation.mov (still), 2026, 06:13, video

Image by Steph Kudisch