# What Will You See at iris yirei hu’s Unconscious Relics in Los Angeles? By Marius Pașculea | 2026-11-07 HTML version: https://antre.art/blog/iris-yirei-hu-unconscious-relics-official-welcome-what-to-know/ > iris yirei hu: Unconscious Relics at Official Welcome, Westlake, through December 19, 2026: paintings, ceramics and reliquary boxes on dreaming and death. Free admission. ## Short answer *iris yirei hu: Unconscious Relics* is on view at Official Welcome, 672 South La Fayette Park Place, Suite 46, Los Angeles, through December 19, 2026. It is the gallery's first solo exhibition with the Los Angeles artist: new paintings, ceramics and reliquary boxes that bring painting and ceramics together to explore the parallels between dreaming and death. ## Key facts - **Who:** iris yirei hu, a Los Angeles artist whose work draws on dreams, ancestral knowledge, collective ritual and the natural world. - **What:** *Unconscious Relics*, an exhibition of new paintings, ceramics and reliquary boxes arranged in nearly symmetrical compositions of personal and cultural symbols. - **Where:** Official Welcome, 672 South La Fayette Park Place, Suite 46, Los Angeles, CA 90057. - **When:** October 24 – December 19, 2026. On Sunday, November 15 at 2 PM, the gallery hosts an event with iris yirei hu and Karyn Kohl. - **Admission:** Free. The gallery is open Thursday to Saturday, 12 to 6 PM, and by appointment. ## What will you see? Paintings and ceramics that behave like vessels for spirit, body and reflection. Some of the new works are titled and composed in reference to funerary and viscera vessels, scrying objects and reliquaries, among them *Chalice*, *Ossuary (Death Valley)* and *Reliquary (Fish Carcass)*, a long walnut-framed construction that combines painting on linen with porcelain ceramics. Four further paintings, *Psychopomp*, *Ostium*, *Afterlife* and *Omphalos*, depict deities and rituals in the visual language of tomb painting: bilateral symmetry, figures in profile, and flat spaces where objects float without depth or perspective. The symbols in hu's work are not meant to be decoded. Some, like teeth and bones, occur universally; others are specific to Southern California and her relationship with Tongva elder Julia Bogany, like the Datura flower, a plant that is ubiquitous across the Los Angeles landscape, rarely acknowledged, and deeply poisonous; others still, like the liver, heart and kidneys, come from Chinese medicine. Their meanings shift as the symbols repeat and rearrange across her practice. The gallery itself is part of the composition: like a tomb or reliquary, its entrance is guarded, the door is small, and the space faces west, so the setting sun writes across the floor every day. ## Why does this exhibition matter? For the last three years hu has practiced dreamwork, including social dreaming, a structured group practice in which participants share nighttime dreams to uncover collective cultural insights rather than personal meanings. *Unconscious Relics* turns that research into a hermetic system of images about the fine boundary between unconsciousness and death, and it is the first solo exhibition with Official Welcome, a [commercial contemporary art gallery](https://antre.art/blog/what-is-a-commercial-contemporary-art-gallery/) in Westlake, following her sold-out presentation with the gallery at Untitled Art Miami Beach in 2025. ## How do you visit? Official Welcome is at 672 South La Fayette Park Place, Suite 46, in the Granada Building in Westlake, open Thursday to Saturday, 12 to 6 PM, and by appointment; admission is free. Use the call box at the entrance to reach the gallery, which will buzz you in. Works like these, built from layered personal and cultural symbols, reward unhurried looking; our guide to [cultural mediation](https://antre.art/blog/what-is-cultural-mediation/) explains how to meet a work on its own terms. ## FAQ ### When is iris yirei hu: Unconscious Relics on view? The exhibition opened on October 24, 2026, and runs through December 19, 2026. ### Does it cost anything? No. Admission to Official Welcome is free; the gallery is open Thursday to Saturday, 12 to 6 PM, and by appointment. ### What is a reliquary in this exhibition? Hu's reliquary boxes combine painting and ceramics in walnut frames, holding images and objects with personal and cultural significance, the way a reliquary holds what a community considers precious. ### Is there an event with the artist? Yes. On Sunday, November 15 at 2 PM, Official Welcome hosts an event with iris yirei hu and Karyn Kohl. ## About Antre Antre is building an app that gives artworks their context, starting with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Join the waiting list at antre.art. ## Sources - Official Welcome, exhibition page for *iris yirei hu: Unconscious Relics*: dates, works, exhibition description, event and visitor information. More context: our guides to [Isabelle Frances McGuire's Joy is a Puppet at Bel Ami](https://antre.art/blog/isabelle-frances-mcguire-joy-is-a-puppet-bel-ami-what-to-know/) and [Thomas Ruff's In Series at David Zwirner Los Angeles](https://antre.art/blog/thomas-ruff-in-series-david-zwirner-los-angeles-what-to-know/). ## Be first when Antre opens. Join the waiting list for Antre, the adaptive cultural mediation app for Art Explorers, with hyper-personalized cultural context for every artwork, and Antre Art Voice, for galleries, artist-run spaces, artists and curators. One email at launch. Email address Join the waiting list Company I agree to receive an Antre launch email. I can withdraw anytime. [Privacy Policy](/privacy-policy/).