Tommy Kha: Other Things Uttered

By Suzanne Révy and Elin Spring

People are complicated. Isn’t that what makes us so mysterious and captivating? From the moment of it’s invention, photography has offered artists enthralling ways to explore identity. Tommy Kha, one of the bright, young lights in photography, has created fresh and inventive ways to address identity with image, collage and installation. His work probes feelings of belonging and alienation as a queer boy of immigrant Chinese parents growing up in Memphis, Tennessee. As the recipient of the Hayes Prize bestowed by the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA, the solo exhibition, “Tommy Kha: Other Things Uttered” will be on view through January 25^th, 2026.

“Flatlands” by Tommy Kha on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Kha mines emotional complexities in compositions utilizing family albums, cutouts of body parts, and masks. These colorful, dense frenzies visualize the uncertainty and struggles of embodying multiple identities, a universally relatable theme. At center stage of the exhibit is a large installation of collaged images in a cacophonous construction of domestic ephemera. On the walls of the show, Kha’s photographs flatten and democratize these elements into frames that are simultaneously playful, challenging and vulnerable. 

“New China (New Lin’s Chinese), Memphis, TN” by Tommy Kha, 2019, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY, and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

“The Small Guardian, Muscle Shoals, Alabama” by Tommy Kha, 2018, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

“(Fun Car) Madison Avenue, Midtown Memphis, TN” by Tommy Kha (left) and “Oxhead, Downtown Memphis, TN” by Tommy Kha on view at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

Many images speak to the southern culture where Kha grew up and question the idea of home as a place of belonging: a Chinese restaurant complete with knickknacks and red lanterns; a monument of offerings by a waterfall in Alabama; and an abandoned, graffitied building by a fire hydrant. They are accompanied by a line of small, vernacular prints commonly found in family albums but lacking any human presence. Instead, Kha highlights the low-slung buildings, strip malls and signs that seem to ask, do I belong here? 

Feature Image:“Constellations XVIII, Whitehaven, Memphis, TN” by Tommy Kha, 2019, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

“Mine IX Den(tist Room), Whitehaven, Memphis, TN” by Tommy Kha, 2017, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover.

Kha introduces character in the series Façade, scrutinizing the domestic sphere and his relationships through self-portraiture. Masks of his own face, hands, feet and even life-sized headless cutouts of his body are placed in various rooms and landscapes. In one, his mother is seated on a bed by an ironing board, with Kha’s mask craftily peaking out from behind a nearby curtain. This image reveals a sense of spirited trust between them, as she controls the shutter release. In another, she sits on the floor of a dentist’s office, and Kha’s masks peak out from behind an armrest and a chair. Kha appears scattered and incomplete, but a definite presence in the room.

“Constellations XXIV, Verplanck, NY” by Tommy Kha, 2024, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

“Stops II, Marsha P. Johnson State Park, Brooklyn, NY” by Tommy Kha, 2020, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY, and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

The makeshift quality of the cutouts endow Kha’s work with a quizzical humor. In one image, a headless, upside-down body cutout lounges in a lush green landscape. In others, cutouts of his hands are inserted in a rocky shore or a verdant field. These surreal scenes convey mixed messages, at once asserting their piecemeal identity while also attempting to fit into uncomfortable spaces. In frisky, vibrant compositions, Kha visually and symbolically embraces the marvelous mess of identity, alienation and belonging.

“Assemblies I (Or Me Crying in Three Takes) Greenpoint, Brooklyn” by Tommy Kha, 2020, courtesy of the artist, Higher Pictures, Brooklyn, NY and the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

As ever, the Addison creates a dialog between Kha’s work and their own photographic holdings. Be sure to check out Family Portrait in a nearby gallery that features work by luminaries such as Dawould Bey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Gregory Crewdson and Sally Mann. There is a multi-media landscape show in the upstairs galleries that showcase the Florida Highwaymen Painters which is paired with Captive Lands. This show engages with ideas around who can or cannot visit or access certain places. These exhibits feature two galleries of photographs, including an excellent selection of pictures made in Florida by Walker Evans. 

“Sara, Martin, David and Tolani” by Dawould Bey, 1992 on view in Family Portrait at the Addison Gallery of American Art through January 4th, 2026. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

A selection of gelatin silver prints by Walker Evans of pictures made in Florida, on view in Captive Lands at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA through January 18th, 2026. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

For more information about all of these exhibits: https://addison.andover.edu