ASU-LACMA Navigating change in museums lecture series | Suzy Halajian and Alexis Kyle Mitchell | Exhibition as Inquiry: 'The Goal of Our Health'

Feb 5 | 1 to 2 p.m. MST | Zoom

Suzy Halajian, Director and Chief Curator of JOAN, Los Angeles, with artist Alexis Kyle Mitchell

This joint talk reflects on “The Goal of Our Health,” a solo exhibition by Alexis Kyle Mitchell, curated by Suzy Halajian and presented at JOAN in Los Angeles (November 7, 2025, to January 31, 2026). Drawing from Mitchell’s interdisciplinary practice as an artist and filmmaker, the exhibition brings together questions of disability, memory, intimacy and kinship through film, installation and collective study. Together, Halajian and Mitchell consider how this project took shape within a small, nonprofit exhibition space committed to care-based, community-oriented models of cultural production. The talk considers what it means to organize an exhibition today that prioritizes inquiry, access and relational forms of knowledge over spectacle or institutional scale. Framed within JOAN’s broader mission, the discussion offers reflections on curatorial collaboration, ethical exhibition-making and the possibilities—and constraints—of building spaces for sustained care and experimentation within the contemporary art ecosystem.

Suzy Halajian is a curator and writer based in Los Angeles, where she serves as the Executive Director and Curator at JOAN. Her practice is invested in long-term collaborations with artists, critically engaging with the intersections of art, politics, and social histories. Halajian has curated exhibitions and public programs at institutions such as Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, the Hammer Museum, and Human Resources Los Angeles, as well as Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York), Oregon Contemporary (Portland), Kunstverein (Amsterdam), UKS (Oslo), and the Sursock Museum (Beirut). Her curatorial work and writing have been supported by the Graham Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Georgia journal, and a Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts. Halajian’s writing has appeared in ArteEast, BOMB, X-TRA, Ibraaz, and other publications. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Film & Digital Media program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Alexis Kyle Mitchell is an artist whose work critically engages with feminist and disability studies, exploring how embodied knowledge challenges dominant narratives around health and identity. Exhibitions include Peer Gallery, London; Glasgow International, Glasgow; GTA24 MOCA Triennial, Toronto; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle; Kunstverein Munich; and Mercer Union, Toronto; screenings at International Film Festival Rotterdam; Art of the Real, New York; and IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Lisbon; performances at MOCAToronto; University of Toronto and the New School, New York. Residencies include Cove Park (Scotland); MacDowell (USA); Sommerakademie Paul Klee (Switzerland); and Akademie Schloss Solitude (Germany). Mitchell was a postdoctoral fellow at New York University in the Center for Disability Studies and is currently a visiting scholar in the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality.