Harmony Korine is set to debut his first U.S. museum survey, Perfect Nonsense, at ICA Miami. Featuring more than 50 works, the exhibition maps the full trajectory of his career—from early, pre-Gummo experiments to his latest ventures into immersive, post-cinematic media.
A Career Built on Chaos and Subculture
The title Perfect Nonsense encapsulates Korine’s long-standing fascination with disorder, contradiction, and the fringes of American life. Structured as a sequence of thematic environments, the show explores recurring ideas in his work, including outsider culture, social critique, hedonism, and the strange rituals of youth.
The exhibition begins in the late ’90s, following the cultural impact of Kids, with early collages, paintings, and handwritten notes. These formative pieces lay the groundwork for Korine’s later explorations of aggression and subcultural identity.
From VHS Grit to Painterly Experimentation
A central thread of the show revisits Korine’s cult film Trash Humpers, known for its lo-fi, VHS-shot aesthetic and unsettling humor. Alongside it are the “Shadow Fux” paintings, created in collaboration with Rita Ackermann, which further expand his raw, confrontational visual language.
Subsequent rooms highlight Korine’s “Twitchy” paintings—works that fuse low-resolution iPhone imagery with traditional techniques, resulting in ghostlike, distorted figures. These pieces blur the boundary between digital capture and physical media, reinforcing his ongoing interest in image degradation and reinterpretation.
Miami, Mythology, and Moving Images
A dedicated “Florida Room” anchors the exhibition geographically and conceptually, reflecting Korine’s current life in Miami. The space contrasts the evolving local arts scene with the darker, gothic undertones often associated with the American South, creating a layered portrait of place and identity.
The exhibition culminates with Aggro Dr1ft, Korine’s infrared-shot “post-cinema” project starring Travis Scott. This final section signals his shift toward gaming culture, virtual environments, and new forms of immersive storytelling.
Exhibition Details
Perfect Nonsense runs from April 15 through October 4 at ICA Miami. Bringing together film, painting, photography, and ephemera, the survey positions Korine not just as a filmmaker, but as a multidisciplinary artist constantly redefining the boundaries of visual culture.