It’s hard to find artwork more eminently huggable than Masako Miki’s furry creations. Part 1970s lounge furniture, part “Monsters, Inc.” character design, the ungainly-yet-cute bloboids beg for a pat on the head – or at least whatever anatomy takes the place of “head” in these odd guys.
But please, be respectable and do not actually touch the art in “Night Parades,” a fun exhibit running until December at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco. A Japanese-born artist who’s lived for decades in California (now Berkeley), Miki has colonized the space with her largest presentation ever, encompassing both paintings and sculptures crafted from felt and lurking in a near-dark environment.
“I hope that my works generate the kind of curiosity and empathy that enables us to come together,” she says. Indeed, you might find yourself strangely stirred by these humping shapes. As the museum’s curators write: “’Midnight March’ helps us understand deeper aspects of Miki’s ‘othered’ figures and recognize difference as a positive force, even as we are unsettled by it.”
Details: Exhibit runs 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday (open until 7 p.m. Thursday) until December 7, 2025, at 345 Montgomery St., San Francisco; free, icasf.org