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Without Apology: Asian American Selves, Memories, Futures

Museum of Art Museum of Art

Exhibition: Without Apology: Asian American Selves, Memories, Futures

Dates:

Location:

Center Gallery, Media Gallery, Focus Gallery
This exhibition spotlights the vibrancy and diversity of Asian American artistic expressions over the past century.

Selected Works

A drawing on blue paper in black lines with animal skulls

Alfonso Ossorio, Untitled, 1941, ink on paper. º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Museum Purchase: Barbara Cooney Porter Fund. Reproduced with the permission of The Ossorio Foundation and Nicole A. Vanasse.

A silkscreen print with an oval containing a picture of two women in a boat against a black background.  Under the oval are five fortune cookies, the center one with a "do not" symbol over it.

Hung Liu, Miss Fortune, 1995, silkscreen. º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art. Archival Collection of Marion Boulton Stroud and Acadia Summer Arts Program, Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Gift from the Marion Boulton "Kippy" Stroud Foundation, 2018.10.5. © 2023 Hung Liu Estate / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 

 

A drawing of a large bull on the left facing a small rabbit on the right

Mel Chin, Self-Portrait (Bison and Hare), 1996, hard ground etching and aquatint on paper. º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Anonymous Gift and Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund. Courtesy of the artist.

 

A watercolor with many elements: a female figure in profile, a winged animals, abstract forms, circles, and dots

Shahzia Sikander, Ready to Leave, Series II, 1997, vegetable color and watercolor on wasil paper. º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Museum Purchase, Laura T. and John H. Halford, Jr. Art Acquisition Fund. © Shahzia Sikander, Courtesy, Sean Kelly.

 

A six part image in a grid of the back of a head in a black and white head covering

Stephanie Syjuco, Applicant Photos (Migrants) #2, 2016, archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle Baryta paper. º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, The Philip Conway Beam Endowment Fund. © Stephanie Syjuco; Courtesy of the artist, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, and RYAN LEE Gallery, New York.

A ceramic fish, painting in orange hues

Stephanie H. Shih, Red Snapper, 2023, painted ceramic. º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Museum Purchase. Courtesy of the artist and Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco. Photo: Robert Bredvad

 

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This exhibition spotlights the vibrancy and diversity of Asian American artistic expressions over the past century. The Asian American artists featured in the exhibition—including Tomie Arai, Mel Chin, Hung Liu, Chiura Obata, Alfonso Ossorio, Patrick Nagatani, Stephanie H. Shih, Roger Shimomura, and Shahzia Sikander—reclaim and reframe racialized narratives of the past, explore the legacies of these histories on their present identities, and forecast alternative visions of the future. Collectively, the works of art underscore experiences of imperialism and displacement, economic and political discrimination, and broken cultural and familial lineages. But they equally illustrate the boldly playful and imaginative energies of Asian American artists, highlighting the resilience of Asian American communities that continually envision new futures and possibilities of belonging.

This exhibition was co-curated by º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ faculty members Connie Y. Chiang, Shruti Devgan, Belinda Kong, Nancy E. Riley, and Shu-chin Tsui, with curatorial support from Cassandra Braun, Sabrina Lin, and Emily Pratt ’24. 

Support for the exhibition is provided by the Lowell Innes Fund, º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ.

Programming

“Copy of a Copy: Artist Talk with Stephanie H. Shih”

Stephanie H. Shih, artist, who has work included in "Without Apology: Asian American Selves, Memories, Futures," spoke at º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ about her work.

February 29, 2024

 

Enjoy this recording of an artist's presentation with Stephanie H. Shih.

“Copy of a Copy: Artist Talk with Stephanie H. Shih”

Brooklyn-based artist Stephanie H. Shih’s painted ceramic sculptures reflect the material culture of the Asian American diaspora. In her presentation, she reflected on the way objects and self-identities transform as they move through the process of replication. This program was held in conjunction with the º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art’s exhibition "Without Apology: Asian American Selves, Memories, Futures” (on view through June 2, 2024) and º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ’s “Asian American Reckonings” initiative.

Presented by the º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ Museum of Art. Recorded at º¬Ðß²ÝÑо¿ÊÒ on February 29, 2024.

Press

Portland Press Herald, April 28, 2024