October 25, 2025 – February 7, 2026

Love Letters to Aliens, an exhibition and event series at Southern Exposure in San Francisco curated by Sholeh Asgary, considers the notion of the alien in its most expansive sense – from the extraterrestrial to the intimate. The project is framed by the drawn, decomposed, or transgressed borders of bodies, land, and matter. It examines how seduction, repulsion, and obfuscation can function as strategies of survival and acts of celebration in the erosion of entrenched systems.

The exhibition features works by Rana Hamadeh, Xandra Ibarra, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Maryam Tafakory, and Yue Xiang, with performances by Roco Córdova, a DJ set by Alchemia, and a partnering event with Niloufar Khonsari and Medicine for Nightmares.

From counter-archives to material excess and tender address, the artists of Love Letters to Aliens incorporate various mediums and methodologies in their works which include sculpture, drawing, performance, video, and grief work. Collectively, these works demonstrate the ways in which archives, affect, and material can render certain lives legible while withholding others.

ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMING: 

October 26, 2025 | Opening Performance, "Things  You May Find Hidden in My Ear" by Roco Cordova and DJ set by DJ Alchemia

January 9, 2026 | Book Launch & Conversation, "The Future is Collective" with author, Niloufar Khonsari; Sholeh Asgary, curator of "Love Letters to Aliens;" and Sharmi Basu, Executive Director of Vital Arts. In partnership with Medicine for Nightmares

February 7, 2026 | Closing Performance by Roco Cordova and Prisoner Letter Writing Workshop