FriendsWithYou: Sonarium

Dual exhibitions by the renowned Los Angeles-based artist duo FriendsWithYou (Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III) will open on April 18, 2027.  Ludington Court will debut a yet-to-be-completed commission, Sonarium, a large musical instrument. Its mediative music will bring together people in a shared sonic environment as they listen, meditate, and gather. The Court will be filled with pews for conversation or contemplation of the instrument, a collective space of wonder and community. Meanwhile, a survey exhibition in an adjacent gallery is a focused introduction drawing on the past 15 years with sculptures of Little Cloud, their most well-known character, Frog God, and a rainbow sculpture titled The End. Besides newly commissioned work, there are also examples of their vibrant clay low-relief sculptures, such as It Was All a Dream. These meld together corporate logos, toys, video game and cartoon characters to show that these are a shared cultural vocabulary fueling our collective imaginations. All of these artworks convey FriendsWithYou’s deep engagement with Jungian archetypes and animism—the belief that inanimate objects possess spiritual energy—and how those ideas illuminate contemporary culture. These complementary exhibitions will be truly impactful turning the Museum’s galleries into transcendent spaces for ritual, connection and empathy. Ludington Court and Preston Morton Gallery.