Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry installation view. Money Toad. USC Pacific Asia Museum
“Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry,” the installation that has filled all 12 rooms of the University of Southern California’s Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena since February, closes Sunday, and admission is free for both days of its final weekend.
The exhibition, which opened Feb. 14, 2026, pairs approximately 100 objects from the museum’s collection with works by 24 contemporary artists, most commissioned for the show, and routes both through the immigrant experience by way of pan-Asian mythology.
Conceived by curator and artistic director Dave Young Kim, a Los Angeles-based Korean American artist and muralist, the installation carries a narrative written in verse on the gallery walls in a voice the museum describes as evocative of a wise elder addressing a loved one.
Visitors move through a shadowy night crossing filled with demons, a rendition of an immigrant’s first apartment, and a gilded room holding a gold Jin Chan frog that dispenses coins. A wraparound video installation is set inside a reconstructed airplane cabin, and an AI video interaction lets visitors assume the role of an immigrant. Dragons, cranes and guardian spirits recur as metaphors for internal states and intergenerational legacies, the museum says.
Kim described the exhibition in a USC news release: “Imagine stepping inside an illustrated book of poetry written by a cherished loved one.” He told the Pasadena Weekly the rooms follow a clear journey: “They’re like scenes in a movie.”
Need to know: “Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry” closes Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, at USC Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Open Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission both days. Parking is free in the museum lot at Los Robles Avenue and Union Street. The AI Curator gallery guide is free at usc.pam.clioai.art. For more, call (626) 787-2680 or visit pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu.
