asian-american artists
DESCRIPTION
What is Asian American identity in the context of contemporary art? This exhibition asks both artist and audience to contemplate the essential questions of "Who is Asian-American?" and "What is Asian-American Art?" If there is such an individual as an "Asian-American Artist," this individual ultimately finds himself or herself in the creative process instead of attempting to provide a stock answer about what constitutes his or her identity. The artists presented in this exhibition express how they, as Asians and Americans, generate a constantly new and evolving cultural tradition.TRANSCRIPT
ASIAN : AMERICAN : HOMOGENOUSAugust 19 - September 23, 2011
Curated by Insook Seol
Co-presented by Asian Arts Initiative
ASIAN : AMERICAN : HOMOGENOUS
August 19 - September 23, 2011
Curated by Insook Seol
Co-presented by Asian Arts Initiative
Opening Reception: Friday, August 19, 6-8 pmFirst Friday Reception & Artist Talk: Jeonghan YunFriday September 2, 6-8 pmGallery hours:Tuesday-Friday 12-6pm.
Asian Arts Initiative 1219 Vine St.Philadelphia,PA19107T 215-557-0455
• This brochure made by Philadelphia Asian-American Artists Association• Sponsored by Korean Heritage Research Assoc. USA Inc Media Sponsored byThe Korea Times, Philadelphia
Introduction
Through this exhibition, I would like for the audience to contemplate these essential questions: “Who is Asian-American?” and “What is Asian-American Art?” If there is such an individual as an “Asian-American Artist,” this person should strive to find himself or herself in the process of artwork instead of through providing a stock answer as to what constitutes his or her identity.
Some artists in this exhibition, such as Insook Seol, Sohbha Menon, Sueim Koo, Hank Yoo, Chunghee Lee, show how much they struggle to find their own ethnic and personal identity as an Asian-American in their works.
As Shobha Menon says, “Deep-rooted images of Indian culture and fast moving technology of this present world tend to impasse me in a cultural synthesis, where I am confused and in a process to evolve a new idiom of visual language in canvas ....” She tries to find her roots in Indian legends, symbols, pictures and themes. The lotus are drawn in the background as symbol of India on her work, ‘Radhakrishna’ and in the work, ‘Sense of transcendence’ which explain the yogiga implies the inspiration of India.
Sueim Koo also tries to find the identity of the person from her own experience in the past. “My landscape is a journey, the journey of my youth.” Through her artwork, Koo gathers her broken memory from her family to express her current situation.
Hank Yoo was born in Korea and grew up in America. He views the city as a culture in and of itself. To him, a city is a big bowl, a bowl producing a third culture. He reports an interesting concept that the city is a river and people flow along the river like water. It is a culture that the flow of people waves. Korea is not great for him to remember. He says, “That is the thing I inherited from my parents.” He tries to plant the new flower buds of a new culture above the founding roots of a multicultural mix in the city. He may meet his parents’ generation through the city.
However, most of the artists who participated in this exhibition express how Asians and Americans meet and create a new cultural tradition through the generations, and that they are assumed to find out an individual identity as an artist. For example,Young S. Rho started art school very late in her life in America. That probably makes her works not seem American or Korean but, it shows that she is trying to find her own identity as an Asian-American artist.
Chunghee Lee, shows her identity through nature on her ‘Going home’. Interestingly, Korean artists participated in the exhibition who came to America as first-generation immigrants after spending most of their life in Korea present nature for expressing their identity through the works including ceramic artists Eunice Choi’s ‘The moon from Korea,’ Yong-Hae Han’s ‘Where we should go?,’ Chunghee Lee’s ‘Going Home,’ Sueim Koo’s ‘My own landscape’, Alice K. Chung’s ‘Sausalito in CA’, Jae Keun Suh’s ‘Lost Forest’, Misook Park’s ‘The Flower’. These works are probably all natural and convey human unity in a spirit that is uniquely Korean.
Chunhyang Yun of ‘Dak tree Recollection” and Jeonghan Yun of ‘Where is Zen 07-30’ insisted on the traditional Korean paper called Dak for their identity. Not only for their identity, but they also wanted to find out “how to incorporate Korean traditional culture in American culture.” For their own works, they wander in the mountains of Korea to get Dak trees and log them. After they peel the bark of the Dak tree, they boil it in the traditional way for creating the form that it gets. Unlike Hank Yoo, the photographer who’s trying to find the identity of Asian America through city and culture, these two young artists address their identities as artists rather than as an Asian American to form and to link to a new culture by combining Korean tradition with contemporary culture and art in the United States.
Artists who were invited to this exhibition are very interested in a variety of tasks, and show a serious attitude. It is especially worthy of deep study for the artists who presents a problem for immigrants as “a genre of immigrant art”. Insook Seol, Sueim Koo, Yong-Hae Han and Chunghee Lee are talking about immigrants. They address the idea that immigrants do not belong to either the United States or Korea. As they contemplate their life as an immigrant, they realize they are neither fish nor fowl, neither completely American nor Korean. Yonghae Han asks immigrants. ‘Where should we go?’ Chunghee Lee gives the answer into the visual language of the reality they are giving.
I used a colon (:) instead of hyphens. It means ‘equal’ in this exhibition. The exhibition titled ASIAN : AMERICAN : HOMOGENOUS means ASIAN = AMERICAN = ASIAN AMERICAN = AMERICAN=ASIAN AMERICAN. The works of two American artists, Logan Blanco and Barbara A. Straussberg, will show us that art works affect people emotions without ethnicity in this exhibition.
Insook Seol, curator
Logan Blanco
Deconstruct-reconstruct 02
Deconstruct-reconstruct 01
Eunice Choi
Moon from Asia, ceramic, 2009
The Face of the Ancient Asian, Ceramic, 2010
Moon from Asia, ceramic, 2009
Alice K. Chung
Sausalito in CA, Oil on canvas, 16”x20”
Adaptation, oil on canvas, 30"x40", 2011
Yong-Hae Han
Where Should We Go?, c-print, 2010
Sueim Koo
My Landscape, painting on canvas, 2011
My Landscape, painting on canvas, 2011
Chunghee Lee
Going Home, c-print, 2011
I Am Because We Are, c-print, 2011
Jamie Moon
Sleepwalking, oil on linen, 50"x26", 2010Visiting, oil on linen, 36"x24", 2010
Shobha Mieon
Radhakrishna, wrap canvas,30"x36", 2010
Ochre, oil on canvas, 20"x30", 2010
Rosa Kim Paik
Geo3Tehran, 24"26", mixed media on canvas
Geo3Hadera, 28"26", mixed media on canvas
Misook Park
The Flower, HankookWha on traditional Korean paper, 2010
Young S. Rho
Just Before Spring, water color on paper, 2010
Barbra A. Straussberg
Burrerfly, painting on canvas, 2010
Insook Seol
Under the skin, mixed media, 2009
Jae Keun Suh
Lost Forest, c-print, 2010
Lost Forest, c-print, 2010
Hank Yoo
City is Culture_Waiting Hats, W&B print on Kant paper, 2009
Jeonghan Yun
Where is Zen 07, mixed media,15"x30", 2010
Chunhyang Yun
Dak Tree Recollection, mixed media,42"x58", 2010-2016
Logan Blanco <[email protected]> Eunice Choi <[email protected]>Alice K. Chung <[email protected]>Yong-Hae Han <[email protected]>Sueim Koo <[email protected]>Chunghee Lee <[email protected]>Jamie Moon <Jamie Moon <[email protected]>Shobha Menon <[email protected]>Rosa Kim Paik <[email protected]>Misook Park <[email protected]>Young S. Rho <[email protected]>Barbara A. Straussberg <[email protected]>Insook Seol <[email protected]>Jae Keun Suh <[email protected]> Hank Yoo <[email protected]>Jeonghan Yun <[email protected]>Chunhyang Yun <[email protected]>
• This brochure made by Asian-American Artists Association, Philadelphia• Sponsored by Korean Heritage Research Assoc. USA Inc
Media Sponsored byThe Korea Times, Philadelphia
Asian Arts Initiative 1219 Vine St. Philadelphia, PA19107 T 215-557-0455 www.asianartsinitiative.org