The Stuff of Life

“Material Intimacies,” a group exhibition at NXTHVN in New Haven, Connecticut, reminds us that personal intimacy, even the sort highlighted by the ongoing pandemic, is expressed materially—and shaped by social and historical forces, not least the global colonialism that still affects ties to resources and kin. Curatorial fellows Michelle Phuong Ting and Claire Kim reveal, in an official statement about their selection of works by eight artists, that they kept a guiding question