Diasporic Asian Art Network

CFP for CAA 2013: Subaltern Rising: Racialization and Visual Culture in the Wake of Independence

lkina — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:25:40 +0000

CFP: Subaltern Rising: Racialization and Visual Culture in the Wake of Independence
Association for Critical Race Art History (ACRAH) Sponsored Session
College Art Association Annual Conference
New York, February 13-16, 2013

Chair: José Esteban Muñoz, New York University

The years 2012 and 2013 mark fifty years of independence for dozens of former colonies across
the globe. This panel is dedicated to the consideration of art and other forms of expressive
culture at the moment of historical transition, especially as it was evident in the reconfigured
racialization of citizens, economies, geographies, and political systems.

Key regions of post-coloniality include the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia,
and the Pacific Islands. Commissioned public monuments and state architecture; redrawn cities,
renamed streets and other public spaces; and the establishment of cultural institutions—including
national museums and libraries—were acts of autonomy in newly independent Jamaica, Trinidad
& Tobago, Algeria, and Western Samoa (all 1962), and elsewhere.

How was the burst of creativity among artists producing work for the state, reorganized
marketplaces and other commercial venues, performance, and national pageants inevitably
informed by the preceding colonial order? Which post-colonial strategies reflect symbolic and
stylistic borrowings from the language of European modernism in general?

What comparisons and contrasts can be made with post-colonial art produced earlier in short
India and Pakistan (1947); Sri Lanka (1948); Laos (1949); Cambodia (1953); Tunisia, Morocco,
Ghana, and Sudan (1956)? How do all these mid-twentieth century breaks from colonial
and imperial rule influence subsequent visual and cultural programs in the Bahamas (1971),
Suriname (1973), Papua New Guinea (1975), the Panama Canal Zone (1979), Australia and New
Zealand (1986), and Eritrea (1993)?

Please submit a 350-word preliminary abstract and short CV (2 page maximum) in one MSWord
or PDF file attachment to: acrah@ymail.com by May 11, 2012. Email submissions with one
attachment only.

CAA membership is NOT required to participate in or attend the session.

ASSOCIATION FOR CRITICAL RACE ART HISTORY
acrah@ymail.com | Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/acrah> | The Grapevine <http://acrah.wordpress.com>

Download a pdf of the CFP here: CFP_ACRAH

The Future is Now: Asian America on its Own Terms — presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s 15th United States of Asian America Festival

achang — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:18:31 +0000

Thurs, May 3rd 5-8pm: Gallery Opening
Sat, May 5th 2-4pm: What Lies Ahead:
Creating Community & Expanding the Context for Asian American Art
Sat, May 12th 2-4pm: Artist Talk
Fri, May 25th 5-7pm: Gallery Closing Reception

The exhibition features works in a variety of media by an acclaimed group of artists: Kim Anno, Michael Arcega appears courtesy of Marx & Zavattero, Lenore Chinn, Binh Danh, Taraneh Hemami, Nancy Hom, Justin Hoover, Su-Chen Hung, Betty Kano, Hung Liu, Gabby Miller, Ranu Mukherjee, Pallavi Sharma, Tina Takemoto, Truong Tran, Carlos Villa and Flo Oy Wong. Curated by Jennifer Banta with Exhibit Consultation and Design by Matt McKinley.

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC), supports and produces multi-disciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of Asian Pacific Islanders living in the United States.

Vaulting Limits: Cao Jigang, Lin Yan, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing, Yuan Zuo at Tenri Cultural Institute, NYC

achang — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:56:44 +0000

Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13 Street, NYC, proudly presents Vaulting Limits: Cao Jigang, Lin Yan, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing, Yuan Zuo Co-Curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and Michelle Y. Loh. The show will run May 4-25, 2012 with an Opening Reception on Thursday May 10, 6-8 PM and a Panel Discussion on Saturday May 12, 3-5 PM.

Trained in modern European painting and influenced by the Chinese ink tradition, Cao Jigang, Lin Yan, Wei Jia, Xiao Bing and Yuan Zuo explore the borders between abstraction and realism, painting and sculpture, symbolism and literalness, improvisation and regimented discipline. While ostensibly nebulous, the artworks included in the show, simultaneously appear startling; familiar yet strangely unsettling providing an enlightening flicker of displacement. All five artists are graduates of the most advanced and prestigious, yet government sponsored art academy in Beijing , the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). They’ve straddled the categories of traditional and contemporary producing works that, while employing time-honored methods and materials are meaningful to the contemporary world. Lin Yan expresses her political pre-occupations through xuan paper that in itself has a rich cultural history dating back to the Tang Dynasty when it was used for calligraphy, painting and book printing. She casts it to create bricks that make up the grid in a distressed American flag, or she tears it to symbolize a cultural deterioration, or overwhelming consumerism. Wei Jia’s collage works with hand made paper relate to calligraphy with which he embellishes his work’s surfaces as well as its layers to explore his cultural roots. Wei incorporates both the purposeful and accidental effects of his paper and paint within its layers, either calligraphic text with meaning or lettering for its own sake. Cao Jigang’s landscapes, while addressing historic entities, simultaneously fragment reality at times by offering detailed views or by dividing it into panels. While ostensibly appearing like the 11^th century Monumental Song mode of monochrome because of its quiet color, Cao’s landscapes are more about the cun or contour strokes used to define mountains, hills, and valleys that act as cyphers of identity. Fragmentation, separation and Heraclitan flux or eruption can partly describe the work of Xiao Bing. However, through all of this seeming abstract chaos it is possible to make out familiar scenes such as the Great Wall or other historic landmark. This ‘misty screen’ as he calls it that overlays his buildings, results in a blurry, haziness much like that used by Turner in his Vortex-like compositions. Yuan Zuo is a scholar and painter familiar not only with his own culture’s historic past but also with that of the west. However, he is an independent thinker as seen through his art statement who claims that “the subject of the painting should be determined by the artist and be devoid of outside influences.” This statement is borne out by Yuan’s abstract works that although engage the gesture in their expressionist tendency, are coloristic symphonies.

These five artists Cao, Lin, Wei, Xiao and Yuan have been put together for this show not only because they’re graduates of the same academy, but also for their retention of aspects of their original culture while working within a globalized world. This is a somewhat difficult ambition, as a discourse or dialog with multiple cultures is somewhat like the immigrant experience whose adoptive country offers an alternative place to live, yet doesn’t understand his/her originating social context. Nevertheless, these five artists have successfully conveyed their personal views while maintaining their cultural integrity to sensitively express their experience within an international world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please call 212-645-2800 or write to the Administrative Director Yuji Okui at yuji@tenri.org

or to the Exhibitions Director Thalia Vrachopoulos at tvrachopoulos@gmail.com or 212-691-7978.

Museum of Chinese in America Opening Reception for Spring Exhibitions Wed., April 25, 6-8pm

achang — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:43:00 +0000

In Bloomberg Special Exhibitions Gallery

America through a Chinese Lens

April 26 – September 10, 2012

Featuring photographs and projects by:

Yan Deng, Wing Young Huie, Wayne Liu, Arthur Ou, Julie Quon, Ka-Man Tse, Tseng Kwong-Chi, Ann Woo, An Xiao, Amy Yao, Chien-An Yuan, Hai Zhang, Jiajia Zhang
+
Community photographs from MOCA’s collection

America through a Chinese Lens surveys photography of American life as shot by contemporary Chinese and Chinese American artists, documentary photographers and non-professionals, identifying the specific ways in which the Chinese have used the camera to see this country – its beauty, contradictions, and realities. The exhibition spans many generations of photographers: contemporary artists who use the medium as well as snapshots taken by new immigrants from the 1950s to today which have been selected from MOCA’s permanent collection. During the run of the show, new media artist and design strategist An Xiao will be shooting and posting photographs regularly as she travels throughout the west and southwest, offering a live visual essay about her America on our tumblr page: chineseinamerica.tumblr.com.

Curated by Herb Tam, Curator and Director of Exhibitions

In the Jundy and Tin An Cheng Digital Salon

June 4, 1989: Media and Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Square

April 26 – September 10, 2012

June 4, 1989: Media and Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Squaredraws from MOCA’s extensive collection of Asian-American and Chinese-language periodicals to reconstruct a narrative of the coverage of and response to the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre of 1989. These periodicals tell the story of the sister movement sparked in America: thousands, mainly young Asian-Americans, marched and rallied in cities across the country in solidarity with the Chinese protesters. The crackdown of June 4 politically galvanized the Chinese-American community, and the protests escalated. Amidst the current renaissance of popular protest, June 4, 1989: Media and Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Square offers a chance to reflect critically on the inseparable roles of protester, journalist, and spectator at home.

Curated by Ryan Wong, Assistant Curator

Selections from Laramie: A Gem City Atlas by Rebecca Solnit, Shizue Seigel, Ben Pease and the University of Wyoming’s Creative Writing MFA Program with Laramie Myths and Realities by Shizue Seigel

achang — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:37:58 +0000

Selections from Laramie: A Gem City Atlas
by Rebecca Solnit, Shizue Seigel, Ben Pease and the University of Wyoming’s Creative Writing MFA Program with Laramie Myths and Realities by Shizue Seigel

In 2011, as the distinguished visiting writer at the University of Wyoming’s writing program, Rebecca Solnit launched a Laramie atlas modeled after her book Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, in a class of graduate students cotaught by local writer Alyson Hagy. Cartographers Ben Pease and Shizue Seigel and local artists joined the project and brought it to completion. Accompanied by Shizue Seigel’s photographs.

Maps are invitations in a more direct and exhilarating way than images or words… you can locate whatever the map shows and then you can locate yourself in relation to it…. Maps are also invitations, to orient yourself and to disorient yourself and explore. — Rebecca Solnit

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 26, 2012, 5 – 8:30 pm Exhibition Dates: Monday, April 23 – Friday, June 8, 2012, M – F, 9 am – 5 pm Seed Gallery, Thoreau Center for Sustainability Building 1012, 1014 Torney Avenue (at Lincoln Boulevard) The Presidio of San Francisco. www.thoreau.org Contact: Bruce DeMartini, bruce @thoreau.org, 415-561-7823

Painter Michiko Itatani Chicago Spring 2012 exhibitions: MetCap Bank, Printworks, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art

lkina — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:45:15 +0000

Painter Michiko Itatani Chicago Spring 2012 exhibitions:

2/6-5/10 Metropolitan Capital Bank (MetCap) (4 artists)
9 E. Ontario, Chicago IL 60611 (The Tree Studios) 312-640-2313

3/16-4/21 Printworks
311 West Superior Street • Suite 105 Chicago, IL 60654 • 312-664-9407
"CTRL-Home/Echo - Miniature Itatani” (solo)
https://www.facebook.com/printworksgallery

4/20-6/10 Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
2320 W Chicago Ave Chicago, IL 60622 773-227-5522
"Mutuality" (3 artists)
http://uima-chicago.org/index.php?cat=7
opening 4/20 6-9

Solo exhibition by Alejandro Toledo Acierto at Marwen – opening celebration April 20, 2012

lkina — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:08:39 +0000

Video artist Valerie Soe at DePaul University Tuesday, April 24, 2012

lkina — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:06:31 +0000

Video artist Valerie Soe at DePaul University
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
5-6:30 PM

The Chinese Gardens and The Oak Park Story
Two film screenings and an artist talk by acclaimed experimental video artist Valerie Soe
DePaul University Art Museum
935 W. Fullerton
Chicago, IL

Sponsored by Global Asian Studies and the Department of History of Art and Architecture
This event is FREE and open to the public

Valerie Soe is a San Francisco writer, educator, and artist whose experimental videos and installations, which look at gender and cultural identity and anti-racism struggles, have exhibited at venues such as the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles the Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum in New York City, and at film festivals worldwide. Her most recent award-winning documentary, The Oak Park Story <http://www.theoakparkstory.com/> (2010) has exhibited widely across the country. Soe is also the author of the blog beyondasiaphilia.com <http://beyondasiaphilia.com/> , which looks at Asian American art, film, culture, and activism. beyondasiaphilia is the recipient of a 2012 Art Writers’ Grant from the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation, one of only seven such grants awarded in the U.S. She is an Assistant Professor in the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, where she teaches film history and production, cultural criticism, art and social practice, and media
studies.

Chinese Gardens – Racism, resistance, and the hidden history of Chinese Americans
The Chinese Gardens looks at the lost Chinese community in Port Townsend, Washington,
examining anti-Chinese violence—lynchings, beatings, and murders—in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s and drawing connections between past and present race relations in the U.S.

http://www.thechinesegardens.com/

The Oak Park Story
The Oak Park Story (2010, 22 min.) is a documentary film that recounts the journeys of three families – from Cambodia, Mexico, and California – who band together at a run-down slum in Oakland CA and win a landmark settlement against their landlord.

The film is directed, edited, co-produced and co-written by Valerie Soe and co-produced and co-written by Russell Jeung, both of whom are professors of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University.

http://www.theoakparkstory.com/

Gang of Nine curated by Larry Lee opens April 20, 2012 at the Research House for Asian Art

lkina — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:01:40 +0000

Come to The AsAm Lit Review Historic Event at National Portrait Gallery on Sat. 4/14 With 7 Writers Responding to Asian American Artists!

lkina — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:01:12 +0000

In 2011 the National Portrait Gallery debuted its historic first Asian American exhibition. To celebrate the landmark exhibition and explore the intersections of visual and literary art, The Asian American Literary Review (AALR) commissioned seven of today’s most exciting Asian American writers to craft literary responses to seven of the exhibition’s portraits. We hope you’re as excited as we are about what they’ve come up with!

On April 14th, 2012 from 11 AM – 4 PM come participate in a new and unique experience when the writers present their original work and discuss, in conversation format, their work and the intersections of Asian American arts and communities. The Edgar P. Richardson Symposium: Asian American Portraits of Encounter Between Image & Word, a day-long literary event we’re hosting in collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program.

Featured writers David Henry Hwang, Garrett Hongo, Bao Phi, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Marianne Villanueva, Kazim Ali, and Anna Kazumi Stahl will read responses to portraits by artists Tam Tran, Satomi Shirai, Roger Shimomura, CYJO, Hye Yeon Nam, Hong Chun Zhang, and Shizu Saldamando. Come for all of the conversations or any portion! Free and open to the public, no need to RSVP, but spread the word! It is so rare to have such depth of talent and accomplishment in one place, and the space for the audience to get more insight about the writers and their work.

To learn more about the symposium, visit aalrmag.org/symposium2012. To pre-order the issue of AALR in which the portrait-response pairings will be published, visit aalrmag.org/get-involved/membership-subscription.

See you there!

Asian American Literary Review
editors@aalrmag.org