For an artist as young as she is, Sai Clayton is remarkably accomplished. She co-curated the Frist’s expansive exhibition In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century, she is the curatorial director of COOP, and she has her own art practice, which blends sophisticated ideas about identity and belonging into works that are both complex and accessible. All that is to say that when she exhibits new work, it’s always worth paying attention. For Blood on My Hands, Fish in My Veins, opening Saturday at the former Zeitgeist space RADAR615, Clayton is continuing her investigation into the duality of her own multiracial heritage, this time through archival photographs of her grandfathers. It’s visually and conceptually rich subject matter — one of Clayton’s grandfathers was an American soldier in World War II, and the other was displaced by the bombing of Tokyo as a child. The exhibition also incorporates childhood drawings, wartime propaganda, cartoon imagery and self-portraits. From her exhibition statement: “The project considers the broader visual relationship between Japan and the United States, examining how personal histories become entangled with national ones.”
Opening reception 5-9 p.m.; through July 25 at RADAR615
516 Hagan St.
