Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses

A landmark retrospective of six-decade Los Angeles artist Carl Cheng, exploring environmental change, technology, and nature's agency through rarely exhibited artworks and archival materials. About A landmark retrospective, Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is the first in-depth survey of the six-decade career of a pioneering Los Angeles artist whose genre-defying work explores environmental change and the role of technology in society. An overdue and deserving examination of his wide-ranging accomplishments, the exhibition brings together approximately 50 rarely exhibited artworks and archival ephemera and is accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue. On view at ICA LA September 26, 2026, through February 28, 2027, the museum is further honoring Cheng's legacy and local impact by commissioning a new work that exemplifies his enduring fascination with water as both sculptural and conceptual material. A central figure in the arts of Southern California, Carl Cheng (b. 1942, San Francisco; lives and works in Santa Monica) began his career in the 1960s in the context of global political unrest, artistic experimentation, and the booming aerospace industry, resulting in artworks that operate at the intersection of identity, technology, and ecology. Through ephemeral, process-based artworks that connect both the artificial and natural worlds, Cheng pushes the boundaries of traditional object-making, and expands the histories of post-minimalism, systems art, environmental art, and social practice. Cheng has consistently questioned nature's agency and the extractive impact of humans on the environment. An undeniably timely topic, the exhibition title is drawn from the artist's frequent declarations that when considering humanity and nature, "nature never loses." Yet, he also underscores our agency in imagining alternative tools and creative solutions to mitigate manmade problems. Organized by The Contemporary Austin, ICA LA is the last stop on the international tour of Nature Never Loses—a fitting homecoming for an L.A.-based artist whose work we exhibited in 1998 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive publication published by JRP | Editions, documenting the oeuvre of Carl Cheng. Designed by Studio Lin with contributions by Alex Klein, Rachel Eboh, Joel Ferree, Celien Govaerts, Andres Pardey, Amanda Sroka, and Gloria Sutton. Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses is curated by Alex Klein, Deborah Dupré Head Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Contemporary Austin, with assistance from Rachel Eboh, Curatorial Assistant, The Contemporary Austin. The presentation at ICA LA is organized by Amanda Sroka, Senior Curator, with Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle, Curatorial Associate. The exhibition is organized by The Contemporary Austin in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Bonnefanten, Maastricht; Museum Tinguely, Basel; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Original support for Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Philadelphia. Major support is also provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Teiger Foundation, with sustainability efforts guided by Rute Collaborative as part of Teiger Foundation's Climate Action Pilot. Major support for Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses at ICA LA is provided by Teiger Foundation and Mike Kelley Foundation. Generous support is provided by Karen Hillenburg, Untitled Future, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Angeles Art Fund. Additional funding provided by Noriko Fujinama. ICA LA is supported by the Curator's Council and Fieldwork Council. Read more Toggle Installation Performance / Live Art Sculpture Mixed media