About the Gallery

Vision/Mission
Asian Arts Initiative's Gallery is a lab for contemporary Asian American visual artists from Philadelphia and across the United States. The Gallery's program focuses on communities in the process of making art and engages the public through exhibitions, workshops, "slide slams" and other events that interpret traditions and challenge how we look at art and who participates in it.

History
The Gallery at Asian Arts Initiative began in Fall 2000 with the exhibition, "Chinatown and Resistance", which highlighted activist artwork in Chinatowns in Philadelphia, New York, and other cities. The exhibition was inspired by community opposition to a proposed baseball stadium project just north of Philadelphia's Chinatown. The community protests and the exhibition contributed to the successful cancellation of the Chinatown stadium project.

Since that inaugural show, the Gallery Program has featured artists such as muralist Omar Ramirez, community artist Tomie Arai, printmaker Fujiko Isomura, local painter Eurhi Jones, New York's Godzookie Asian American artist network, and graffiti/installation artist Jeff Cylkowski. Recent highlights include: “Love Triangles... the Asian Soap Opera Exhibition “ (Spring ’05), an exploration of romance, politics, sociology, and family relations portrayed in Asian soap operas, “Chinatown In/flux” (Fall ’05-Winter ‘06), a community-wide art exhibition which investigated the changing demographics and the shifting landscape and perspective within Philadelphia's Chinatown community and our “Alumni Show” (Fall ‘06-Spring ‘07), one of our final exhibitions at 1315 Cherry Street that honored the everyday artists who make the Asian Arts Initiative possible. 

Have an idea for a gallery show? Learn how to propose a gallery exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative

---

Prior Exhibitions

• 1996 - 2002
• 2003 - 2005
• 2006 - 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
  

---

1996 - 2002

May 17 - June 14, 1996

Half the Other: Explorations of "Home" in America (hosted by the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial).
Group exhibition featuring work exploring the immigrant experience and anti-immigrant sentiment and legislation in the United States.

 

September 29 - December 11, 2000

Chinatown and Resistance
Group exhibition of interpretive artwork and archival material documenting the struggle of Philadelphia's Chinatown residents to resist development plans that have threatened the neighborhood over the past 30 years.

 

December 15 - February 17, 2001

Closet Artist Exhibition
Group show of photographs and drawings by visual artists who had never exhibited before.

 

February 22, 2001 - April 3, 2001

On the Spot
Group exhibition of banners, photographs, and paintings by artists from the Initiative's team of Gallery volunteers with Jane Locke, Juliet Shen, Niva Shrestha, and Sean Stoops.

 

April 10, 2001 - May 27, 2001

Omar Ramirez
Solo exhibit of canvas murals of Los Angeles-based artist Omar Ramirez.

 

May 31, 2001 - July 20, 2001

Dual Identities
Exhibition featuring work by Fujiko Isomura, printmaker based in Madison, WI (now San Diego) and Eurhi Jones, a Philadelphia muralist and painter.

 

October 2, 2001 - December 7, 2001

Tomie Arai: Printed Matter
Printmaking, paintings, and book art by Tomie Arai, a NYC based community artist.

 

December 12, 2001 - February 9, 2002

What You See
Group exhibition featuring work of youth artists in the Initiative's Youth Arts Workshop.

 

February 25, 2002 - April 21, 2002

Godzookie: Before and After
Group exhibition featuring members of the New York-based Godzookie, a network of emerging and established Asian American artists from New York City.

 

May 13, 2002 - August 5, 2002

too cute
Group show featuring Asian American artists from around the US, challenging and indulging in concepts of "cuteness" in Asian pop culture.

 

September 12, 2002 - October 14, 2002

Roger Shimomura: Memories of Childhood
Lithographs by Roger Shimomura, from Lawrence, Kansas, focusing on personal experiences in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II.

 

October 24, 2002 - December 3, 2002

Chinatown Scene/Unseen
Group photography exhibition focusing on Chinatowns from across the US and beyond.

 

December 13, 2002 - February 15, 2003

Big Picture: What're You Lookin' At?
Visual Art created by high school students in the Initiative's Mural Art Workshop, taught by local artist, Isaac Lin.

---

2003 - 2005

March 6, 2003 - May 30, 2003

Visible Resistance: Anti-War Exhibition
Anti-war group exhibition featuring activist artwork and graphics by Asian Americans protesting conflicts in the Middle East, South Asia, and beyond.

 

June 26, 2003 - August 15, 2003

Momentum
An installation by Jeff Cylkowski, a Philadelphia and Brooklyn-based painter and performer, inspired by graffiti art and hip hop culture.

 

October 30, 2003 - January 7, 2004

Robots vs. Monsters
A group exhibition inspired by the aesthetics and concepts of Asian science-fiction movies, animation, and comics.

 

January 16, 2004 - March 5, 2004

Big Picture: The Personal is Universal
Visual art created by high school students in Initiative's Mural Art Workshop, taught by local muralist, Eliseo Silva.

 

March 19, 2004 - July 2, 2004

The Art of Building Community: Asian Arts Initiative 10th Anniversary Exhibition
Original artwork, archival images, and a visual timeline exploring the Initiative's history.

 

October 28, 2004 - February 25, 2005

Walls: A Visual Conversation
Featuring Nijmie Dzurinko, Rashidah Salam, and Carol Pereira, an examination of the wall as an instrument of division and separation through video, photo and installation work.

 

December 15, 2004 - February 28, 2005

Asian American Community Portraits: Scene Unseen
At the Philadelphia Foundation, an exhibition of teen work from the Youth Arts Workshops and photographs by Rodney Atienza from the Initiative's book Chinatown Lives.

 

March 16, 2005 - April 29, 2005

Youth Arts Workshop Show
Unveiling of the Mural Arts Workshop Spring Mural Design, to be painted by the youth workshop attendees in a public outdoor space. And more artwork from the Mural Arts Workshop, hosted by the Mural Arts Program.

 

May 19, 2005 - July 29, 2005

Love Triangles... the Asian Soap Opera Exhibition
Featuring digital art, photography, and video by Sung Baik, Swati Khurana, Laura Kina, Annu P. Matthew, exploring themes of romance, politics, sociology, and family relations portrayed in Asian soap operas and what these genres reveal about Asian American experience. Also with an installation by the Initiative's Rodney Camarce, Rana Sindhikara, and curator Sean Stoops.

 

October 21, 2005 - January 29, 2006

Chinatown In/flux Exhibition
A community-wide art exhibition created by seven of today's leading artists: Tomie Arai, Skowmon Hastanan, Mei-ling Hom, Hirokazu Kosaka, JiHyun Park, Jean Shin and Steve Wong - investigating the changing demographics within Philadelphia's Chinatown community, the expanding geographic borders of the neighborhood, and the shifting of perspectives among residents and tourists alike. Chinatown In/flux allows us to see Chinatown with new eyes: as a place of extraordinary cultural intersections, shifting boundaries, and boundless imagination - a place inexorably In/flux. Supported with a major grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative. Visit chinatowninflux.org.

---

2006 - 2008

Nitin Mukul Neither Here Nor There
Mixed Media Exhibition
February 13 - March 27 2006
This mixed-media painting exhibition, highlighting artist Nitin Mukul, investigates and reflects the ways in which science, technology, and globalization affect our identities and reshape our physical and mental environments.

A Different Lens
April 3 - June 2, 2006
A Different Lens focuses on the unique perspectives of Asian American photographers, challenges the distinctions between photojournalism and photography as an art form, and examines how these photographers depict and portray Asian and Asian American culture and experience, particularly in terms of people, locations, and objects/artifacts. 

Clenches Fists, Open Hands:
the waters of my ancestors
August 2006 - Spring 2007
A multi-media exhibition created by over 30 youth and teaching artists from our summer YouthArtsWorks program. Incorporating a painted mural, collage, photography, and 3-D installation, the exhibition evokes the themes of dislocation, relocation, and hope - what that means to our local community and in a world context.

Asian Arts Initiative Alumni Show
October 2006 - Spring 2007
Our Alumni Show features visual art work from current and past staff, interns, workshop participants, volunteers, and all artists who have been part of the organization since we moved to the Gilbert Building in 1997. As one of our final exhibitions at 1315 Cherry Street, we want to bring together and honor the everyday artists who make the Asian Arts Initiative possible through showing and sharing our creative work.

Transplants
October 27, 2008 - January 16, 2009

Inspired by the Asian Arts Initiative’s own recent experience of moving multiple times, Transplants examines the life-changing journeys made by artists and communities ‘transplanted’ from one place—whether physical or conceptual—to another, revealing the critical and creative roles that culture, immigration, exile, and home play in our ideas of ourselves and our world. Transplants shows the complexities and particularities of communities’ and individuals’ stories and representations of movement through space and time.

Curated by Sean Stoops, the exhibition will be based at the Asian Arts Initiative with a video art installation at the International House Video Lounge, a space programmed by InLiquid Art & Design Network.

---

Portraits In Emotion
February 6 - March 15, 2009 
A multi-media exhibition of paintings and audio interview recordings created through an Oasis Guest Artist series led by Deborah Cailoa, Portraits In Emotion brings together eleven Philadelphia artists who delve into their own lives and openly reflect upon personal relationships to mental health and the process of art-making. Presented by Oasis Arts & Education as part of the pilot of the Asian Arts Initiative's Community Curators program. 


Chinatown In/flux: Future Landscapes
April 3 - August 2, 2009
Facing the constant challenge and need for growth, the Chinatown community now stretches across the historic barrier posed by the Vine Street Expressway. As the Asian Arts Initiative moves into this new part of the neighborhood, we present a series of site-specific art installations to engage residents and visitors in imagining the Future Landscape of Chinatown North. With invited artists Rebecca Hackeman, Nadia Hironaka, Kikuchi + Liu, Kimberly and Jonathan Stemler.  


Urban Convergence
June 12 - August 2, 2009
The marriage between art and culture has never been more prominent than it is today. Examples abound: Damien Hirst’s paintings as the backdrop of Jay-Z’s music videos; Takashi Murakami’s designs on Louis Vuitton’s accessories and Kanye West’s album cover; graffiti art on Converse sneakers, Sprint advertisements, and energy drinks; Shepard Fairey’s iconic “HOPE” portrait of President Obama.

These collaborations reflect an unprecedented merging and morphing of artistic genres and culture—high art with street art, underground with pop, fine art with street culture—that is breaking down social barriers and dated paradigms and clearing space for new ideas and aesthetics.

Hailing from metropolitan hubs throughout the country—Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington D.C.—these artists will share exciting work in a variety of mediums and styles that demonstrate a nationwide convergence toward a fresh contemporary sensibility with an urban edge: Pose II, Joshua Mays, Dave Cramske, Isaac Lin, Rodney Camarce, Jesse Olanday, Sun You, Figments by Ciriaco, Anjni Raol, Shin Ae Tassia, Chanika Svetvilas, Bret Syfert, Junghwa O’Connell, Miss Tina Wong, Teel MUL, and Dan “R5” Barojas.


Furious Style!
August 14 - October 11, 2009
The joyously self-described "unrefined and undefined" culmination of an energetic six-week workshop, Furious Style! merges elements of abstract art with graffiti-style lettering that speaks to the values of today's young visionaries and tomorrow's leaders. The exhibition also includes Jeff Cylkowski's colorful and colossal site-specific mural installation welcoming visitors into the foyer of the Asian Arts Initiative's new home.


We Are Tiger Dragon People
October 20 - December 23, 2009 
A collection of images that literally leap from the page, We Are Tiger Dragon People features pop-up art books and photographs by local artist Colette Fu providing a glimpse into her ancestry and the cultural richness of the ethnic groups of southwestern China. Read the press release here.

---

Carrying Across
February 19 - April 30, 2010
Curated by local artist YVONNE LUNG, CARRYING ACROSS is a multi-media group exhibition that explores the nature, processes, and products of interpretation and translation. The findings range from morbidly beautiful to elegantly understated, hysterical to heartfelt.

Featuring artwork by Sama Alshaibi, Midori Harima, Tomiko Jones, Jong Kyu Kim, Sarah Koljonen, Larry Lee, Yvonne Lung, Shanjana Mahmud, Rana Sindhikara and I Gusti Putu Hardana Putra, and James Sham.


The World Through Our Eyes
May 7 - June 25, 2010
In partnership with Mia-lia Kiernan, The World Through Our Eyes lets audiences discover the subtle beauties of contemporary Cambodia and the rich resilience of its youth. In a series of photographs taken during a workshop led by photojournalist JEN MAY PASTORES, The World Through Our Eyes is a vibrant statement by youth countering the stereotypes of artistic and emotional desolation in the developing world. Print sales will benefit Tiny Toones, a youth center in Phnom Penh.


Going Green: New Environmental Art from Taiwan
August 6 - August 20, 2010
Presented in partnership with The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, GOING GREEN will offer to U.S. audiences an international perspective on environmental art and reflect the unique viewpoint and approach to nature of Taiwan’s contemporary artists who are just beginning to focus on the environment as an important issue for their country and the world. Taiwan is a very urban and highly developed technological country with many contemporary artists specializing in video art and new media. It is only recently that a few artists in Taiwan have begun to focus on the environment, and re-introduce to contemporary art the use of natural materials and a focus on the natural world that has always been of major importance in traditional Chinese art and culture. For more information, check out the press release.


Chinatown Live(s)
Oral Histories From Philadelphia's Chinatown
August 30 - September 24, 2010


An ever popular, always relevant staple in our permanent collection, Chinatown Live(s) is a series of portraits taken by photographer Rodney Atienza, profiling Chinatown neighborhood workers from all walks of life and featuring excerpts from their unique oral histories that speak to the diversity of the community that Asian Arts Initiative now calls home.


Of Filmi Love and Other Demons
October 1 - November 24, 2010


Curated by Shelly Bahl, featuring her own work as well as art by Jaishri Abichandani, Siona Benjamin, Swati Khurana, Nitin Mukul, and Pratima Naithani, this exhibition is comprised of painting, mixed-media, photography, video and installation, and reflects on the omnipresent influence of Bollywood cinema within contemporary popular culture in South Asia, the Diaspora and beyond. The six artists in the exhibition are all currently based in New York City and vicinity.  This exhibition is a collaboration between Asian American Arts Centre and Asian Arts Initiative. The reception is co-sponsored by Twelve Gates Art Gallery.

 
Inscrutable
December 3, 2010 - February 4, 2011
A dual site exhibition and partnership with the University of Delaware, Inscrutable engages multiple generations of artists to navigate the vast interpretations of identity in our contemporary landscape – whether through a subtle, unintended, obvious, or overt Asian lens. Artists: Tomie Arai, Rodney Camarce, Ken Chu, Jinming Dong, Jennifer Jones-O’neil, Yvonne Lung, Rene Marquez, Yong Soon Min, Paul Pfeiffer, Hiro Sakaguchi, Rana Sindikara, Barbara Takenaga, Lynn Yamamoto. Curated by Anthony Vega.

---

Housing is a Human Right
June 2 - July 15, 2011
Presented by the Asian Arts Initiative and the Laundromat Project, Artists Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone of Housing is a Human Right bring The Office Of Human Rights to 1223 Vine Street. 

Click here to go to the Housing is a Human Right project page with full information about the exhibition and upcoming events!

Asian : American : Homogenous
August 19 - September 23, 2011
Curated by Insook Seol

Postcard Artwork (from left to right): Dak Tree Recollection (mixed media) by Choonhyang Yun, My Landscape (painting on canvas) by Sueim Koo, and Where is Zen* (mixed media) by Jeonghan Yun

Opening Reception: Friday, August 19 at 6pm
First Friday Reception & Artists Talk: Friday September 2 at 6pm

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.

Artists: Hank Yoo, Sueim Koo, Jeonghan Yun, Choonhyang Yun, Alice Chung, Jamie Moon, Yonghae Han, Chunghee Lee, Eunice Choi, Shobha Menon, Barbara Salzer, Logan Blanco, Insook Seol, Young S. Rho, Misook Park, Jae Keun Suh, Rosa Paik


Presented in collaboration with the Center for Emerging Visual Arts:
Moving through Memory
October 7 - November 18, 2011

---

< Return to Current Gallery Exhibitions page