For over six decades Carl Cheng (b. 1942 in San Francisco, CA; lives and works in Santa Monica, CA) has worked across a variety of media to explore the tensions between nature, artmaking, identity, and technology. His approach is informed by his dual background as both an artist and industrial designer. He studied at UCLA for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees with photographer Robert Heinecken, and pursued graduate work at the Folkwang Essen, where he was exposed to the interdisciplinary ethos of the Bauhaus. Although Cheng received initial recognition for his molded plastic photographs that were included in MoMA’s 1970 exhibition Photography into Sculpture, he was always experimenting with different materials and forms. Notably, in 1967 he incorporated as John Doe Co. as both a practical solution to sourcing materials and as a critique of both the art market and Vietnam War. Under this anonymous moniker he began producing “products” to fulfill the American appetite for new forms of entertainment and that also foreshadowed the notion of the Anthropocene, a geologic era shaped by humans. His travels throughout Asia and interest in Marcel Duchamp further informed his approach and prompted a shift in his work towards portable objects, recycled materials, and public interventions.

Although he exhibited his work regularly in university art galleries around Los Angeles and at venues such as Capp Street Project and Sculpture Center, beginning in the 1980s he found a wider platform through public art (both official and self-initiated). Working in public space allowed him to create on a more ambitious scale and with greater resources to reach a general audience. In recent years, the methods and questions raised by Cheng’s practice have resonated with a younger generation resulting in his inclusion in group exhibitions and new scholarship. In 2022 REDCAT mounted Cheng’s solo exhibition Material Behavior, which centered on Cheng’s important sand rake Art Tool: Rake 1022, which was restored through a partnership with the ICA Philadelphia, Bonnefanten, and Tinguely Museum for inclusion in this survey exhibition.

Alex Klein is the Deborah Dupré Head Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Contemporary Austin. Her survey exhibition of Carl Cheng’s genre-defying practice, Nature Never Loses, opened in Austin in Fall 2024 and is currently traveling to venues in the US and Europe through 2027. Recent and forthcoming projects include exhibitions and new commissions with artists including Deborah Hay and Michael Smith, Lubaina Himid, Akira Ikezoe, Em Kettner, Guadalupe Maravilla, Manik Raj Nakra, Jiab Prachakul, Sable Elyse Smith, and the Estate of Moki Cherry. Prior to her current role she was the Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE ’60) Senior Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania (ICA) in Philadelphia. During her eleven years at ICA, she originated numerous exhibitions, publications, public programs, and online initiatives with artists including Linda Goode Bryant, Ane Graff, Barbara Kasten, Michelle Lopez, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Sondra Perry, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Trevor Shimizu, and RAW Material Company. Previously she held positions in the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hillman Photography Initiative, the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Roski School of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California (USC), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She has published widely and is a founding member of the arts workers advocacy group Museums Moving Forward. She received her MFA from UCLA, Los Angeles; her MA in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London; and her BA in Art History from Columbia University, New York.

Amanda Sroka’s curatorial work focuses on global histories of contemporary art with a specialized interest in interdisciplinary practices that operate at the intersections of our personal, political, and spiritual worlds. Since 2022, she has been the Senior Curator at ICA LA, where she organized the recent Speaking in Tongues group exhibition as well as Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses and Amia Yokoyama: Our Strange Hollows, currently on view. At ICA LA, she curated solo presentations dedicated to the work of Samar Al Summary, Carmen Argote, Jackie Castillo, Chris Emile and No)One. Art House, Liz Hernández, Will Rawls, Christine Sun Kim, Trương Công Tùng, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, and Alberta Whittle, and supported with Raven Sanchez: Así Sea/So Be It (2026), Scientia Sexualis (2024), Barbara T. Smith: Proof (2023), and Milford Graves: Fundamental Frequency (2023). Sroka is also a member of the curatorial team for the 2027 Bienal Internacional de Arte de Antioquia y Medellín. She was previously Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she curated solo projects with Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Martine Syms, Zoe Leonard, Senga Nengudi, Marisa Merz, Yael Bartana, and Jitish Kallat, as well as group exhibitions such as Fault Lines: Contemporary Abstraction by Artists from South Asia. Prior to that, Sroka worked at the New Museum in New York.