Locating The Sacred + Asian American Arts Alliance

I got word sent down to me from Kevin Huang (Asian American Arts Alliance) and wanted to make sure and post up here on their festival "Locating The Sacred".

Locating the Sacred is a 12-day, city-wide festival that will be held in New York in fall 2012. The festival will match artists to spaces regarded as sacred, where they will collaborate to produce their own events. Through these events, we will explore the meaning of the word “sacred” to our communities, and showcase Asian American artists as agents of change.

Twelve Days? A city-wide festival? Asian American artists of change?

And you can be a part of it too via the Kickstarter campaign?

Oh yeah - I'm definitely down for this one.

In Pictures: Release Ai WeiWei

Your Post Link.

Danny Shinya Luo: Awesome Watercolors

Got this sent in and wanted to post on up.

Los Angeles, CA (April 1st, 2011) - La Luz de Jesus Gallery, the birthplace of the Pop-Surrealism school of Post-Pop California Art announced that they will be opening an exhibition for critically acclaimed local artist, Danni Shinya Luo.Her exhibition, titled "Chaotic Harmony" is a seminal exploration of how nature and emotions interact - often with seemingly opposite goals. This rousing tribute to all things female and primal is an experiment in empowerment, which confirms that hopes and dreams cannot be suppressed (the artist is a Chinese immigrant, whose sometimes edgy subject matter would likely be outlawed in her native country). The exhibition opens April 1st, 2011 and runs through May 1st. "Shinya's art is really indicative of the type of programming La Luz de Jesus was established to promote," says gallery owner Billy Shire. "As a Chinese woman, she's an overwhelming underdog, which is empowering -the work moves beyond the superficial and sheds valuable light onto what it means to be young." "It's not easy being a young woman in this society, never mind an immigrant" says director Matt Kennedy. "What Shinya's art does is show other young women that its possible with hard work and the right education to take control of their lives, be who they want to be, and tackle whatever taboo they wish." "I am very honored to have been invited back in this capacity," says Miss Luo. "I constantly strive to outdo myself conceptually and technically, and I'm thankful to my parents for the many sacrifices they made in coming to the United States, providing an environment that encouraged education and self-fulfillment. I'm proud of the work I've done and I'll be grateful to all of my family and friends when they attend the opening reception." At the age of 11, Danni Shinya Luo moved from Shanghai, China to California's San Gabriel Valley in 1995. She had a natural affinity for illustration and learned watercolor painting as an understudy to Chinese grand master Ding Ha. In 2003, she entered the world famous Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, graduating with honors in 2006. In 2010, she earned a place in art history when her artwork for X-23 #1 became the first mainstream superhero comic book cover created by an Asian woman. The success of that comic led to other covers for Marvel Comics. San Francisco publisher Last Gasp will be releasing a volume of her pin-up illustrations this fall.

Nice.

Roger Shimomura: An American Knowckoff

I don't know about you, but the above pic from Roger Shimomura's exhibition down at The Flomenhaft Gallery and his artists statement tell me all I want to know -- which is that you should really get on down and check this out.

"I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, a city where ethnic diversity is standard fare, however, for over the last 40 years, I have lived my life in the Midwest where the Asian American presence is still somewhat of a rarity. Since living in Kansas, I have found it to be routine to be asked what part of Japan I am from, or how long I have lived in this country. Just as common, subtle references continue to connect me to stereotypical "oriental" traits, both physical and behavioral. Far too many American-born citizens of Asian descent continue to be thought of as only "American knockoffs".

This latest series of paintings is an attempt to ameliorate the outrage of these misconceptions by depicting myself battling those stereotypes, or in tongue-in-cheek fashion, becoming those very same stereotypes."

Get some more information down at the gallery's site.

KSW + Beyond Surface

Here's some info from my folks down at KSW on their new exhibition "Beyond Surface":

Beyond Surface, an exhibition presented by Kearny Street Workshop and curated by Lucy Kalyani Lin, features the works of five artists that explore the visual and somatic layers of space. Through diverse mediums in sound, video, installation, performance, photography, and sculpture, each artist invites viewers to experience multiple dimensions of perception. Featuring the work of Jacqueline Gordon, Jasmin Lim, Michael Namkung, Christine Nguyen, and Imin Yeh.

There'll also be a talk with the artists:

Saturday, Nov. 20
1:00 – 3:00 pm
ARC Gallery, 1246 Folsom St

Go in depth with artists Jacqueline Gordon, Christine Nguyen, Imin Yeh, Jasmin Lim and Michael Namkung along with curator Lucy Kalyani Lin as they discuss the concepts and processes behind the artwork in KSW's exhibition, Beyond Surface.

Toshiko Nishikawa: Senbazuru

So I got invited to this thing - which I can't go to - but it sounds pretty damn cool so I wanted to make sure and post up about it here - because unlike me - you may actually be able to go.

At Senbazuru, a new interactive installation by Toshiko Nishikawa, viewers are drawn to gaze at a world within a world. Debuting October 29, 2010, at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery in New York City, visitors to the exhibit will be met by 1,000 small mirrored orbs, enticingly and purposefully suspended within reach from the gallery ceiling, where they form a reflective web. 
 
Japanese-born Nishikawa was inspired by a dream she had to create a microcosmic representation of the world. Senbazuru is that dream come true. Each of the 1,000 orbs is connected to those around it, and by peering into the concave mirror contained within each orb, visitors not only see themselves, but become linked to those standing nearby, who are reflected in neighboring orbs. In this way, visitors gain insight into their own tiny universe and inner life, while recognizing themselves as connected to the global community, a concept representative of Ms. Nishikawa's sensibilities as an artist and human being. 
 


Reflecting on this unique and groundbreaking exhibition, Rick Kinsel, Vilcek Foundation Executive Director, said, "We all can benefit, from time to time, by getting a look at ourselves from a new perspective -- the way it feels when we turn a corner and unexpectedly are met with our own image in a storefront window. That remarkable sensation is magnified hundreds of times over when revolving around and with Toshiko's fascinating creation."

As Ms. Nishikawa explains this exhibition offers a way to see oneself in 1,000 different ways (senbazuru is Japanese for 1,000 origami cranes and refers to a prayer for others' health and happiness). It is also, in part, a commentary on her own immigration experience. When living in Japan (she was born in Yokohama), this peace-loving and community-minded artist says she saw herself in only one particular way. But after moving to the US, and ultimately New York City, where she now lives and works, she began to see herself in 1,000 different ways, as someone connected not just to every other person, but to every living organism around her. She also became aware of her own inner beauty, as well as the beauty that exists in nature and in those around her. This awakening now manifests throughout Ms. Nishikawa's work and informs many of her decisions as an artist.

Check out more down at the Vilcek Foundation.

Fellowships, Artists, East, And West

Caught this down at EastWest magazine and wanted to post up a snippet of it here, because if there's one thing we all need at times - it's a little inspiration - especially for the struggling artists just trying to make it their own:

USA Fellowships Honor Innovative Artists

The artists chosen include Beth Lo, a ceramist from Montana who merges together traditional Asian techniques like origami and calligraphy with contemporary souvenirs and toys; Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, a choreographer and dancer from California who mixes Cambodian dance with current content; Hokulani Holt-Padilla, a hula master who teaches and promotes the dance form to a younger generation; Renee Tajima-Pena, a documentary filmmaker and writer who explores class, race, and gender; and Danongan Kalanduyan, one of the most prominent kulintang musicians in the country.

Read it in full here.

Synecdoche And Byron Kim

There's an interesting read on Korean American artist Byron Kim down at the Washington Post that I wanted to link up on up too:

"Synecdoche," by the 48-year-old Korean American artist Byron Kim, recently went on view to the public, filling a huge wall on the lower level of the East Building. The piece should raise eyebrows and questions, even some ire -- which shows just how good it is.

Like a lot of the best fine art, the premise behind the piece could hardly be simpler: It consists of a grid of 429 panels, each one 8 by 10 inches. Kim has painted each panel a single shade of pink or brown or tan that is meant to reproduce the skin tone of a different person who sat for him. A grid of names on a nearby wall lets us match sitters to their color patches. Lorna Simpson, the well-known African American artist, turns out to be dark-chocolate brown. The late Marcia Tucker, founder of the New Museum in New York, is a pale beige. Kim's unfamous relations tend toward pale olives and dark buffs.

A simple premise, yielding tangled thickets of meaning.

Read it in full here.

20th Anniversary Of Asian American Women Artists Association

Just wanted to post up on a few things that the AAWAA has going on in celebration of their 20th anniversary:

20th Anniversary Art Exhibitions
September 22—October 4
free admission during gallery hours

Made in AAWAA — 20 Years of AAWAA
A Place of Her Own — Artists respond to “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?”
Cheers to Muses — Contemporary works

SOMArts Cultural Center
934 Brannan Street (between 8th and 9th Streets), San Francisco, CA 94103
www.somarts.org
(415) 863-1414

Gallery hours: Tuesday–Friday, 2–7 pm & Saturday 12–5 pm
Plus Saturday, October 3, 12 pm–9 pm & Sunday, October 4, 3–6 pm

Check more out down at the AAWAA site.

Submit: Kearny Street Workshop APAture

Kearny Street Workshop, the nation's oldest Asian Pacific American multidisciplinary arts organization, presents its 11th annual APAture September 17-26, 2009. APAture's Call for Submissions is now open. Please click here for a PDF of the artist submission form, or submit online here. The submission deadline is July 11, 2009. To receive announcements about APAture, including upcoming special events and fundraisers, join KSW's email list.

About APAture

Kearny Street Workshop's APAture is an annual multidisciplinary arts festival showcasing the work of emerging Asian Pacific American artists. APAture's mission is to provide artists with an early experience presenting their work at a large event; to build audiences for emerging APA artists; to strengthen the sense of community among artists; and to raise awareness of the existence of and diversity within the APA arts community. APAture values community-building, ethnic and artistic diversity and collaboration across ethnic and disciplinary lines.

And you're waiting for?

Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character

Got this sent out to me and wanted to make sure and post it on up because it sounds like this is going to be completely and utterly cool:

Thirty-one contemporary artists from the Bay Area and beyond interrogate the phenomenon that is modern Chinese culture in the Chinese Culture Center’s (CCC) Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character exhibition. Presented in collaboration with Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) and guest curated by Kevin B. Chen, program director for Intersection for the Arts, the exhibition features a wide array of media including photography, video, painting, animation, sculpture and installation art displayed at both the Center’s downtown San Francisco gallery and in a number of satellite storefront windows throughout Chinatown. The exhibition, which is free to the public, is on view May 1 - August 23, 2009 and opens with a reception on Saturday May 2, 2009 at 1 pm.

The Biennial is designed to showcase fresh perspectives on contemporary culture in Chinese and Chinese American communities. “This is really a here and now survey of what Chinese means to people — specifically young people,” says Chen. “It’s young people who have been responsible for the big shifts we see both in China and out here in the Diaspora so we felt that young artists would be uniquely equipped to investigate and question it. They just embody the energy of all of that change.” And while many of the artists invited to participate are either from China or are Chinese-American, many are not. “When you organize a show around ethnicity, you run the risk of collapsing in on yourself,” he says. “So we were intentional about introducing other communities to the conversation.”

For more information check out the Present Tense Biennial Web site.

Submit Now: Art Slam 2009 At The Asian American Arts Centre

For the past several years, the Asian American Arts Centre has held a series of slide slams, allowing emerging artists the opportunity to present and talk about their work, meet and network with each other as well as with more established artists and critics/curators. Last year, the Centre hosted three art slams, showcasing the work of fifteen artists working in various media.

AAAC will mount two Art Slam this Summer. Dates will be announced later.

Art Slam is an opportunity for artists to share their work with peers, general audience and art professionals in an open forum for critical exchange. This presentation can be done in slides or digital format.

We are inviting all artists of Asian and Asian-American descent as well as those who have been influenced by Asia to submit their work for participation.

If you are interested in participating, please send us:

• 6-10 images of your work (CDR with images in jpeg format or photographs are fine)
  
• 1 page artist statement
  
• Abbreviated artist statement (2-3 lines) for the program
  
• Artist resume
  
• Completed information form (see http://artspiral.org/archive_submission.html)

Send all submission to:
Email: abahrin@artspiral.org
Asian American Arts Centre
26 Bowery, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013
ATTN: Art Slam 2009

Check more out down at the Asian American Arts Centre blog.

David Mura, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire, And Waxing On The World

Saw this snippet via some alerts and just thought it was great seeing an Asian American artist get inspired by other Asian American artists because when you really think about it - as much as we hope everyone else is going to hype us - it's gotta start somewhere, and sometimes - the best hype is from a fellow artist:

In May, Theater Mu and Pangea World Theater hosted the National Asian American Theater Conference. At the opening showcase, amid the raucous laughter at Sun Mee Chomet's satire on the plight of Asian American actresses, I experienced my first epiphany.

[...]

My second epiphany occurred at the Loft's release party for Nation of Immigrants?, a CD of spoken-word performances by minority artists in Minnesota, organized by Thien-bao Thuc Phi.

Read more.

Lam Triet Gets Inspired By Angkor Wat

I have to admit that I'm a little envious of people who can do things like paint and draw - because all I've ever been able to do is put together some stick figures, and even those don't really even look like anything.

I guess I could lament about it and hang my head in shame, but what fun would there be in that (and truth be told, I really like making stick figures and think they're kind of cute)?

A better use of my time would be to highlight someone like Lam Triet who's a real artist:

Triet first visited Cambodia with HCM City’s Committee for Overseas Vietnamese as part of a programme to donate medicine and food to poor Vietnamese living in the country.

"I was deeply impressed with the sculptures carved on Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat hundreds of years ago," Triet said. "I wanted to express part of that beauty in my works."

He said he was especially struck by the depiction of apsaras, considered to be heavenly nymphs in Hindu mythology, on Cambodia’s temples.

The 36-painting exhibition An Tuong Angkor (Impressions of Angkor) includes depictions of apsara dancers and stone figures on the Bayon temple.

Triet was born in 1938 in Binh Dinh Province and studied painting at Hue and Sai Gon Fine Arts schools.

Read more about Triet at Viet Nam News.

Nordstrom's APA Heritage Month Exhibit

From the press release:

Gifted Artists Share Their Diverse Vision
SEATTLE, WA USA

Nordstrom Exhibit Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

SEATTLE, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- During the month of May, Nordstrom is showcasing a vibrant array of compelling work from nine Asian American artists. These artists are coming together from communities in San Francisco to Taipei City and Austin to Hawaii with one common goal: to celebrate diversity and share their interpretations of the beauty of Asian American culture. Nordstrom selected this talented group of artists to share their work reflecting Asian Pacific American-inspired themes in celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The exhibit will be displayed in the windows of select Nordstrom stores and online at Nordstrom.com throughout the month of May.

Now in its fourth year, the exhibit celebrates both accomplished and up-and-coming Asian-American artists. Their award-winning art has appeared in magazines, books, board games, galleries and ad campaigns, and their biographies are as different as their techniques and media.

"We are thrilled to bring the work of these talented artists to our stores again this year," said Amelia Letcher, diversity affairs director. "We hope that the exciting window displays will continue to raise diversity awareness and understanding among Nordstrom customers and our communities as a whole."

The exhibit will feature pieces by 9 artists:

• MalPina Chan, Olympia, Wash., Red Envelope, 2006
  
• Grace Chen, Oakland, Calif., On a Lazy Spring Day, 2008
  
• Jui Ishida, Long Beach, Calif., Bedtime in India, 2007
  
• Pearl Ling, Waianae, Hawaii, Mo'olelo for the Essence of Being One, 2002
  
• Tristan Longstreth, Phoenix, Ariz., Rare Beauty, 2008
  
• Naoko Morisawa, Lynnwood, Wash., Kuhio, 2007
  
• Sherwin Parayno, Austin, Tex., Buddha #1
  
• Yihsin Wu, Taipei City, Taiwan, Fantasy at Work -- Office, 2007
  
• Adrienne Yan, San Francisco, Calif., But I Don't Want to Answer Anymore,
  2008
  

Exhibit Locations

The exhibit will be on display at the following Nordstrom stores: San Francisco Centre, San Francisco; Irvine Spectrum Center, Irvine, Calif.; Michigan Avenue, Chicago; Downtown Portland, Portland, Ore.; Southcenter,Tukwila, Wash.; Santa Anita, Arcadia, Calif.; Ala Moana, Honolulu, Hawaii; and Downtown Seattle. The exhibit can also be viewed online throughout the month of May in the Nordstrom e-gallery at http://www.nordstrom.com/.