Pao Houa Her’s work explores identity, longing, and belonging in a community culturally defined by an elsewhere. Presented at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC), Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape transports viewers to the jungles of Laos, the agricultural fields of California, the memories of elders, and the dreams of HMong community members all around the country. The exhibition is the artist’s first museum survey, presenting over 50 new and recent photographs and video works both in the gallery space and beyond JMKAC’s walls, with installations at public sites and community gathering places throughout Sheboygan, Wisconsin—from roadside billboards to restaurants to an active courtroom.
Pao Houa Her uses her camera to explore the longing and desire of a community culturally defined by an elsewhere. Rooted in the experience of her HMong community and shaped by family experiences and lore passed down by her elders, Her takes a formally rigorous approach to photography to explore the complex intertwining of artifice and desire bound up in dreams of homeland. The first survey of Her’s practice, Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape covers nearly twenty years of work, with selections from six major series to date, as well as new work made in the jungles of Laos
Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape
March 15–August 31, 2025
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
608 New York Avenue
Sheboygan, WI.
The Art Preserve
3636 Lower Falls Road
Sheboygan, WI.
Admission to both is free.
