What Will You See at Isabelle Frances McGuire’s Joy is a Puppet in Los Angeles?

Short answer

Joy is a Puppet, Isabelle Frances McGuire’s first solo exhibition at Bel Ami, is on view through November 28, 2026, at 709 North Hill Street in Chinatown, Los Angeles. The exhibition conjures the foundations of a video game set in a fictionalized colonial-era Salem: a playable game segment, bronze statuettes of the heroine Joy and three bullfrogs named Sister, and a museological display of hand-woven baskets.

Key facts

• Who: Isabelle Frances McGuire, born in 1994 in Austin, Texas, and based in Chicago; a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago whose large-scale installation appeared in the 2026 Whitney Biennial.
• What: Joy is a Puppet, an exhibition built around a playable segment of Joy’s Hands, the first game from Recurseware, McGuire’s collaborative design studio with Will Lee, alongside bronze sculptures and hand-woven baskets.
• Where: Bel Ami, 709 North Hill Street, Suites 105 and 103, Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
• When: October 3 – November 28, 2026.
• Admission: Free. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 5 PM.

What will you see?

The making of a game world, and a trap. Joy, the game’s heroine and anti-hero, has been locked in a rustic shed with only a bowl, a knife, some snails and a writhing ferret; she must puzzle through a series of spells and summon the devil, who alleviates her loneliness with a game of cat’s cradle. Around the playable segment, McGuire stages the character design and narrative fragments: bronze statuettes of Joy, three bronze bullfrogs named Sister sitting in a row with pink mouths agape, and small epoxy-putty Lucky Piles.

In the center of the room, a museological display of “cursed” baskets pays homage to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692–93, which left 25 people dead. Supposedly these vessels carry a hex: fruit will rot, bread will go moldy. The frogs reference a 1754 incident in Windham, Connecticut, known as the Battle of the Frogs, when townspeople armed themselves against a terrible night roar that turned out to be bullfrogs fighting over a drying pond.

Why does this exhibition matter?

McGuire reads the Salem trials as an extraordinary case of a government stoking paranoia to find scapegoats and keep its grip on power: the first three accused, Tituba, Sarah Good and “Gammer” Osborne, were poor and deviant outcasts. After earlier work retooling the myths of male figures from Nosferatu to Napoleon, here McGuire shifts to women in history who played the cards they were dealt, and the artist’s profile is rising fast: a 2024 solo at the Renaissance Society in Chicago, a 2025 Artadia Award and a large-scale installation in the 2026 Whitney Biennial. Bel Ami is a commercial contemporary art gallery in Chinatown, and this is McGuire’s first solo exhibition there.

How do you visit?

Bel Ami is inside the Asian Center at 709 North Hill Street, upstairs in Suites 105 and 103, open Wednesday to Saturday, 11 AM to 5 PM; admission is free. The show closes November 28, so plan accordingly; our guide on cultural mediation explains how to meet a work on its own terms.

FAQ

When does Joy is a Puppet close?

The exhibition is on view through November 28, 2026.

Does it cost anything?

No. Admission to Bel Ami is free.

Can you actually play the game?

Yes. The exhibition includes a playable segment of Joy’s Hands, the first game from Recurseware, the collaborative design studio of Isabelle Frances McGuire and Will Lee.

Who is Isabelle Frances McGuire?

McGuire, born in 1994 in Austin, Texas, lives and works in Chicago, studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, received an Artadia Award in 2025 and presented a large-scale installation in the 2026 Whitney Biennial.

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Sources

• Bel Ami, exhibition page for Isabelle Frances McGuire: Joy is a Puppet: dates, works, concept and artist biography.
• Bel Ami, gallery information page: address, hours and contact.

More context: our guides to the Brockman Gallery exhibition at LACMA and April Bey’s new tapestries at Vielmetter.