Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman brings together 17 artists whose works imagine new relationships between people, technology, other species and the planet. Opening at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville, the exhibition blends analog practices with digital animation, augmented and virtual reality, motion capture and generative software.
Featuring artists including Ian Cheng, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Marguerite Humeau, Josèfa Ntjam, Jacolby Satterwhite and Saya Woolfalk, the exhibition questions human-centered ways of seeing the world. Their immersive and fluid creations propose more connected forms of living, where ecological awareness, imagination and technological experimentation meet.
Three perspectives on interconnected life
The exhibition unfolds across three thematic sections. The first considers biology and ecology through ideas such as evolution, extinction and interspecies relationships. The second explores psychology through playful narratives of transformation, where bodies, dreams and machines take on unexpected forms.
The final section turns to ontology, or the study of being. Here, ancestral knowledge and contemporary belief systems--particularly perspectives beyond modern Western traditions--are placed in dialogue with emerging technologies. The works invite audiences to reconsider humanity's place within a wider living network.
Organized by Chief Curator Mark Scala, Shimmer: Dreaming the Posthuman will be on view from September 25 through January 3, 2027. By pairing artistic imagination with ecological thought, the exhibition suggests that future innovation may increasingly be shaped by empathy, interdependence and a broader understanding of life.
