Opening Reception: Remains to be seen

Smack Mellon presents Remains to be seen, the 2025 Emerging Artist Summer Group Exhibition, guest curated by Pallavi Surana, featuring artists: Maia Chao & Fred Schmidt-Arenales, Yusuf Demirors, S. Emsaki, Sujin Lim, Jessica Maffia, Lucas Odahara, Yunfei Ren, Julia Standovar, and Merry Sun.

Remains to be seen brings together nine artists whose practices probe the afterlives of waste in relation to memory, ecology, consumerism, and identity. Through sound, sculpture, video, and ritual, the artists ask how we might engage waste not only as residue, but as witness. The exhibition unfolds across three thematic zones—absurdity and system failure, material and ecological memory, and ritual materiality—guiding visitors through overlapping constellations of rupture, residue, and renewal.