Wanxin Zhang @ Museum of Craft and Design. The artist’s life-sized figures fuse the ancient tradition of Asian ceramic sculpture (as seen in the terracotta soldiers excavated in 1974) with the subversive legacy of Northern California Funk. His art addresses age-old questions about whether enshrined ideals are sturdy enough to withstand present-day assaults.  A Story From Uncle Tom (2017), a multi-breasted figure of a black Lady Liberty, for example, seems ready to suckle all of humanity – until you see that her torch has been severed and knocked to the ground, while several clusters of graffiti-covered ceramic bricks asks whether any structure, here or anyplace else, can contain the tide of human migration.  Read all of Square Cylinder’s Best of 2019 here.