iris yirei hu and Paula Wilson: We Dream of Life

Ruffin Gallery at the University of Virginia presents We Dream of Life, a monumental installation by New Mexico-based artist Paula Wilson and California-based artist iris yirei hu, whose latest collaboration reflects their close friendship, shared dreams, and their exploration of the natural world.

Made from painting, collage, and monotype, the 52-foot-long textile extends across the gallery from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, and took more than a year to complete. Within the textile, a larger-than-life blue deity stretches from dawn to dusk, planting their feet and hands firmly in the earth, while their body limns the night sky. Hands, flower blossoms, moths, teeth, bones scatter like seeds across the cosmos. The figure’s indelible presence links humanity to the infinite mysteries across time and space. Their existence in the ongoing transformation from yesterday to tomorrow marks the freedom in being alive.

This blue deity is a marriage of each artist’s personal iconographies as seen in their oeuvres: Wilson’s monumental, extraordinary beings that rise like goddesses with multitudes held within their dress, and hu’s blue spirits that swim, float, and journey within her paintings. Outstretched across the sky, the deity loosely references the ancient Egyptian god Nut, who rules the stars, mothers, and the universe, and is said to swallow the sun each night and birth it each morning.

Wilson and hu often share their nightly dreams with one another, which has become integral to the way they work and relate to one another. They see both the dreaming life and waking life as source material for their creative practices. Relatedly, the gallery will be painted in a dark blue, referencing the night, whose mysterious landscape brings to light the subterranean and reparative wisdom of lived experience.

On view: January 30–March 20, 2026. Gallery open Monday-Friday, 9am–5pm. Artist talk: January 30, 3:30–5pm, Campbell Hall 160. Opening reception: January 30, 5–7pm, Ruffin Hall.

We Dream of Life will be accompanied by a limited edition exhibition pamphlet designed by Leah Koransky, featuring an essay by curator and researcher Aurora Tang.

iris yirei hu is a multidisciplinary journey-based artist from Los Angeles who works across paintings, installations, intercultural collaborations, writing, and public art. In 2022, LA Metro commissioned iris to design a large-scale mosaic artwork for the future UCLA/Westwood Purple Line Metro Station slated to open for the 2028 Summer Olympics. She has exhibited at the Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena, California); Center for Arts, Research, and Alliances (New York, New York); Museum of Contemporary Art (Tucson, Arizona); Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art (Winnipeg, MB, Canada); John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan, Wisconsin); Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; among many other venues. Notable awards and residencies include: UC San Diego Longenecker-Roth Artist-in-Residence (2025), John Michael Kohler Arts Center Arts/Industry Artist-in-Residence in Pottery (2025), Meztli, Projects Cultural Worker Fellowship (2024), California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2022), Headlands Center for the Arts Artist-in-Residence (2022), California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship (2021), and Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2020 & 2018). hu is a 2026 UVA Department of Art Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence.

Paula Wilson is a multidisciplinary artist based in Carrizozo, New Mexico, whose vibrant, layered, and often monumental works span painting, printmaking, collage, video, clothing, and installation. Recent solo exhibitions include the California African American Museum (Los Angeles, California); The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Saratoga Springs, New York); and 55 Walker (New York, New York) alongside two-person exhibitions at the Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery at Colby College (Waterville, Maine) and the Albuquerque Museum (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Her honors include the Anonymous Was A Woman Grant (2025); Trellis Art Fund Stepping Stone Grant (2024-2025); Ree Kaneko Award from the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (2024); the Hodder Fund Grant from Princeton University (2020); and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (2009); and the Happy and Bob Doran Artist-in-Residence at Yale University (2009). Her 2025 monograph, Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door, surveys nearly two decades of her practice. Wilson is the co-founder of the Carrizozo Artist-in-Residency program and MoMAZoZo. Wilson is a 2026 UVA Department of Art Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence.

Ruffin Gallery at University of Virginia
Ruffin Gallery is an integral part of the UVA Department of Art's Studio Art Program. Each year, the gallery hosts exhibitions and public programs by students, faculty and visiting artists, including by an annual Ruffin Distinguished Artist-in-Residence. These exhibitions serve as important contemporary art showcases for the University and provide students with valuable hands-on experience. Each spring, the gallery is also the site of final thesis exhibitions by the Program’s distinguished majors and Aunspaugh fellows.

Press contact: ruffin-gallery [​at​] virginia.edu.

Follow @uva_artdepartment on Instagram to stay up to date on Ruffin Gallery happenings. This exhibition is supported by the UVA Department of Art, the Peter B. and Adeline W. Ruffin Foundation, and an Arts Enhancement Grant from UVA Arts & the Office of the Provost & the Vice Provost for the Arts.