ART OF THE ASIAN DIASPORA IN LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN
The Appearance: Art of the Asian Diaspora in Latin America & the Caribbean is the first exhibition in New York City at Americas Society to center the artistic production of the Asian diaspora in the region from the 1940s to the present. Focusing on postwar and contemporary art, the exhibition showcases the work of thirty artists from fifteen countries working in a range of artistic mediums including painting, sculpture, performance, photography, and video, to shed light into strategies and themes that resonate across a wide array of Asian diasporic practice throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
The exhibition embraces and performs the multiple and interrelated meanings embedded in the notion of appearance, inspired by Japanese Brazilian artist Lydia Okumura’s 1975 print by the same title. From acts of appearing and becoming visible—including different types of apparitions—to the idea of impressions and physical resemblance, artists in the show grapple with the complexities of negotiating (in)visibility, revisiting and remaking family archives and stories, and engaging and reconfiguring spiritual practices. The show also addresses abstraction as a formal strategy linked to language, the senses, and the body in the context of the Americas’ postwar art.
Conceived as an appearance in and of itself, this exhibition understands diaspora as an embodied experience and as an intellectual concept, underscoring the political implications of positioning oneself as a diasporic subject in order to address historical silences. The Appearance contributes to a broader reflection on the relationship between artistic production and the histories of racialization that intersect in the region, opening space for dialogues that transgress national borders.
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Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Fong, 2023. Video, 11:49 min. Courtesy of the artist and Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City
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Albert Chong, Natural Mystic, 1982. Photograph, 39 ¾ × 39 ¾ inches (98.4 × 98.4 cm). Courtesy of the artist
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Dan Lie, Memory Stick ou Pau de Memória, 2015, Wooden stick, rope, plastic canvas, eyelets, reflective tape, photography, watercolors, Bolivian snake statue, Japanese rubber, Thai Buddha figure, photograph, Egyptian key chain, wood and rivet train rail from the Bolivian salt desert, Greek coins, Indonesian cigarette box, and rock quartz with tourmaline, 52 × 68 ⅞ inches (132 × 175 cm). Courtesy of Casa Triângulo Image credit: Edouard Fraipont
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Alice Yura, Foto Yura, 2022. Photographic print, 52 ⅜ × 78 ¾ inches (133 × 200 cm). Courtesy of the artist
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Suchitra Mattai, Bloom, 2022. Vintage saris, fabric, feather boas, trim, and peacock feather, 80 × 80 inches (203.2 × 203.2 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, California Image credit: Paul Salveson
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Lydia Okumura, The Appearance, 1975. Silkscreen on paper, 22 ⅝ × 28 ½ inches (57.5 × 72.5 cm). Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Nara Roesler
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Mario N. Ishikawa, Untitled, from the Smoke series, 1984. Soot on paper, 37 ¾ × 26 inches (96 × 66 cm). Courtesy of Almeida & Dale Galeria de Arte Image credit: Sergio Guerini
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Time to be invisible © Suwon Lee 2021
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Tomie Ohtake, Untitled,2009. Tubular carbon steel painted with automotive paint, 46½ ×67¾×43¼inches (118×172×110 cm). Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Nara Roesler
The Appearance includes the artworks of artists like Kazuya Sakai in Argentina, Albert Chong in Jamaica, Wifredo Lam in Cuba, Mimiam Hsu in Costa Rica and Tomie Ohtake, Mario Ishikawa, and Tikashi Fukushima in Brazil.
This exhibition is co-curated by Tie Jojima, former associate curator and manager of Exhibitions at Americas Society in New York, and Yudi Rafael, independent curator and researcher based in São Paulo, Brazil.
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