Artists & Identity

Please join Khafre James, executive director of Hip Hop for Change, and Lily Ling, music director and conductor for the And Peggy North American Tour of “Hamilton”, for a discussion on art in the post-COVID-19 world.

Creating opportunities for youth involvement at the Asian Art Museum, Art Speak engages young artists ages fourteen to eighteen who are interested in Asian art and culture, enjoy exploring new and different ideas, are self-motivated and independent but work well with others, and feel comfortable interacting with the public. From manga to Ming to samurai, Art Speak is a dynamic program that grows from year to year with each season offering new and exciting opportunities for creation and collaboration.

Japanese artist Tanabe Chikuunsai IV pushes the boundaries of bamboo art. He dramatically breaks the scale that we expect of the medium with soaring, twisting forms that stretch from floor to ceiling. His dramatic, immersive environments evoke the bamboo forests where these works began their lives.

Ogawa Machiko’s artistic connection to raw natural beauty is linked to her time living abroad with her anthropologist husband as well as to the seaside landscape of her hometown of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido. “It is my passion for the earth that drives my continual search for the essential in art. The vessel form, with both interior and exterior space, enables me to best pursue this quest — it is not about making vases. Rather, I am inspired by the concept of emptiness within the whole.”
* Ogawa studied ceramics with three Living National Treasures in Tokyo and at the Ecole des Arts et Metiers in Paris, then continued her studies in Burkina Faso in West Africa and in South America

Artist Kwangwoo Bae demonstrates the process of making Korean mother-of-pearl lacquerware.

Discover how two artists seeking a new direction for modern art in the aftermath of World War II found inspiration in Japanese tradition. Trace the friendship, work, ideas and mutual influence of Isamu Noguchi and Saburo Hasegawa, who both sought to balance tradition and modernity, Japanese culture and foreign influences, past and present.

Students will: 1.) examine the Hindu tradition of threshold art; 2.) discuss how Indian values are expressed in the ephemeral art of threshold painting; 3.) draw traditional connect-the-dots threshold art designs; 4.) make colored rice flour and create an auspicious floor painting

Magnolia and quince, from the Flowers of the Twelve Months: March, approx. 1670-1710, by Yun Bing (1670-1710). China; Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The Avery Brundage Collection, B65D49.d.

Asian Art Museum Art Speak interns have a conversation with artist and animator Sanjay Patel.

Students will: 1.) Observe and discuss how artist Santiago Bose uses cultural symbols and artistic methods as post-colonial critique. 2.) Create an assemblage using found objects that conveys their personal identities. 3.) Interview a family member to uncover a photograph or symbol that recalls their heritage and include this in their assemblages. 4.) Write a first person narrative telling a story about their assemblages.