Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Speaking at the Okinawan Association of America Feb 26, 2016




https://www.facebook.com/events/1103372513015134/

Friday, February 26th, 7:00 PM
Free for OAA members, $5 for non-members

Artist talk/presentation by LAURA KINA (professor of art, media, and design at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and a professional artist)

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On Friday, February 26th, 2016, 7:00 PM, the Okinawa Association of America (OAA) in Gardena will host a meet-and-greet with artist Laura Kina. She is a professor of art, media, and design at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois and a professional artist. RSVP is required to attend this event.

Kina will be discussing her latest collection of paintings titled “Uchinanchu.” These mixed-media creations incorporate Okinawan and Hawaiʻian t-shirts donated by OAA members, resulting in quilt-like designs that capture the "champuru" (Okinawan word for "mixed") nature of Okinawan American identity specifically and Asian American identity in general. The joint exhibition, “Transnational Lives in Motion: The Art of Laura Kina and Việt Lê,” will be displayed at Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg University Art Gallery (2/27/16 - 4/23/16).

She will also share photos and stories from a study abroad program that she leads every year. Titled “Okinawa, Japan: Art, Politics, and Economy,” the in-depth tour focuses on traditional and contemporary art while exploring the political and historical struggles that have shaped Okinawa.

Admission is free for current OAA members and $5 for non-members. The OAA is located at 16500 S. Western Ave., Gardena 90247. RSVP is required: oaamensore@gmail.com or 310-532-1929.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Transnational Lives in Motion: The Art of Laura Kina and Viet Le

EXHIBITION:
THE W. KEITH & JANET KELLOGG UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY at
CAL POLY POMONA
(located in Building 35A, Bronco Student Center, across from University Library)
- 2016 -

Transnational Lives in Motion: 

The Art of Laura Kina and Viet Le

Laura Kina "Uchinanchu" and Viet Le "lovebang!"
Sat. Feb. 27 – Sat. Apr. 23, 2016

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 27, 4-7pm

Artists’ Talks: Saturday, February 27, 4:45pm

Artists' Symposium: Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, 1-3pm at BSC, Ursa Minor

https://www.facebook.com/events/1004980082892638/


The Weglyn Endowed Chair for Multicultural Studies and the Kellogg University Art
Gallery are proud to sponsor the exhibitions of Laura Kina and Viet Le. Their artworks
highlight the nuanced nature of Transnational Lives in Motion among Asian American
and Pacific Islander communities. Despite Asian Americans’ contributions to the U.S. for
over three centuries, the perceptions of these communities are relegated to thinking of
them as ‘perpetual foreigners’ or consigned to model minority stereotypes. The shifting
global standing of Asian countries has changed the discourse to take into account that
Asian Americans are neither here nor there, but everywhere, as they actively partake in
transnational lives. Policies, wars, employment, and family reunifications have led to the
movement of Asian lives across the globe, transcending nations, and blurring global
boundaries as their lives are in motion. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders today are
able to stay connected to their homeland, and others are reconstructing their multiple
identities in a nation that tries to contain them. To complicate the Asian American
experience is to understand that these communities are complex and diverse, which
adds to the continued challenges in the way we think about the layered identities and
communities of Asian American and Pacific Islander peoples. Transnational Lives in
Motion: The Art of Laura Kina and Viet Le examines the ways in which Asian American
transnationals construct and reconstruct the fabric of their identities based on their
location, space and time. From mixed-race identities with global connections, to
communities who seek refuge in the U.S. from the legacies of wars, this exhibit
highlights a few issues, which impact immigrant, refugee, and multi-racial ethnic
communities living transnational lives.

Laura Kina’s exhibition, named after her latest series, Uchinanchu, and Viet Le’s trilogy
lovebang! will be exhibited simultaneously, and for the first time, for each artist.
Uchinanchu combines Asian and Pacific Islander pop-culture textiles, fabrics and T-shirts,
formulated into colorful, large-scale tapestries, with traditional painting motifs
addressing how the assimilation of multiple cultures fold meticulously into one personal,
yet collective, journey. Viet Le's lovebang! Trilogy Premiere includes video installations
lovebang!, eclipse, and the world premiere of heARTbreak! -- each, together, transect
the topics of Asian pop-culture, hip-hop, sex, homo-eroticism and being transgender,
with struggle and war, nostalgia and heartbreak.

Co-curated by Mary Yu Danico and Michele Cairella Fillmore

GALLERY HOURS
THE KELLOGG UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY
Mon-Tues 4-8p
Wed-Thurs 12-4p
Sat-Sun 12-4p
Fridays Closed.
Friday viewing arrangements made by appointment only.

LOCATION INFO
The Kellogg University Art Gallery is located at the
Northside of the Bronco Student Center in Building 35A
at California State Polytechnic University Pomona
3801 West Temple Avenue, Pomona CA 91768

CONTACT INFORMATION
Kellogg Gallery Direct: 909-869-4302
Huntley Gallery Direct: 909-979-5556
Email: artgalleries@cpp.edu

Websites:
facebook.com/kelloggartgallery
facebook.com/thehuntleygallery

Galleries Curator: Michele Cairella Fillmore