Jade Wave Rising: Portraits of Power
Over 20 Asian American Pacific Islander women artists stand up to have their voices heard at SOMArts Cultural Center’s Main Gallery
Mural by Twin Walls Mural Company Mural
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 20, 2023 - Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) present the multidisciplinary art exhibition Jade Wave Rising: Portraits of Power, as part of the 26th annual United States of Asian America Festival opening on April 27, 2023, taking place at SOMArts Cultural Center’s Main Gallery. The opening reception takes place Thursday, April 27 at 6pm, followed by a community art workshop and gallery walk-through led by curator Yeu Q Nguyen on Sunday, April 30, and a closing event on Sunday, May 21.
Inspired by the jade gemstone’s various metaphysical and cultural meanings in its association with power, jewelry and crowns, JWR celebrates the diversity of AAPI women’s artistic voices while paying homage to overlooked historical figures and community leaders. “The exhibition aims to bring visibility to the myriad of ways API woman artists have embodied, expressed, and practiced their own power through art-making and community work. In doing so, it also establishes new faces and legacies of leadership in not only the API artistic community, but also society at large,” says curator and lead artist Yeu Q Nguyen.
Beyond unveiling a new large-scale interactive installation created by Nguyen, Jade Wave Rising also features an altar by Twin Walls Mural Company that highlights significant community leaders: Grace Lee Boggs, Violeta Marasigan and Yuri Kochiyama, along with images of youth activists and six lanterns representing the victims of the 2021 Atlanta shooting.
“This show emerges at a critical point in AAPI history when people in our communities are victimized as a result of unjust violence,” says AAWAA Director, Diana Li. “As AAPI women artists, we’re here to transform the narrative and stake a claim to the collective power and resilience behind our voices - voices that have existed in the legacy of our ancestors, families and communities for generations.”
In Her Glory by Julie Lee
Jade Wave Rising follows a series of Asian and Asian American identified women being honored in the arts and mainstream media. The late Bernice Bing, a trailblazing abstract painter and community organizer who also found a home in AAWAA’s sisterhood, made headlines in the arts last year with her work being exhibited at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Performance artist, Kristina Wong, is also a recent recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award with an unrestricted prize of $550,000. There’s also no question that Michelle Yeoh’s recent wins at the Golden Globes and the Oscars speak volumes for Asian and Asian American women everywhere - further empowering artists like those at AAWAA to dream big and rise up against stereotypes of Asian women at all ages.
Join the Asian American Women Artists Association at the opening reception, Thursday, April 27 at 6pm. Spend the following Sunday afternoon at two empowering art workshops and exhibit walk-throughs for the community led by curator Yeu Q Nguyen, April 30 at 1pm and 3pm. On Sunday, May 21 at 1pm, the exhibition also closes with literary readings and a screening of “Manilatown Manang”, a documentary about the life and times of Jeanette Gandiongo Lazam, an original Tenant Defender of the International Hotel during the 1970s and the last evicted tenant to step out of the hotel on August 4, 1977.
The SOMArts gallery is open for visitors Thursday 3:00-7:30 PM, Friday 12:00-7:30 PM and Saturday/Sunday, 12:00-5:00 PM. A virtual 3D model of the exhibition will also be available online on the SOMArts website.
HIGHLIGHTED ARTISTS
‘Cocoon’ by Ahn Lee
Yeu “Q” Nguyen (Curator/Lead Artist)
Los Angeles • she/her • Vietnamese • @yeuqart • www.yeuqart.com
Born in Saigon and immigrated to the US as a teenager, Yeu "Q" Nguyen is multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer based in Los Angeles, best known for her vibrant, interactive installations and intricately crafted objects rich in cultural symbolism and social empathy. Her expansive repertoire of works have appeared at notable venues such as the Autry's SouthWest Museum, the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, the Armory Center for the Arts, and featured in multiple local & regional media, including the LA Times. Her art and community engagement projects on empathy and resilience, such as Weaving Hope and Empathy Table, have won support from national art foundations and regional initiatives such as the Puffin Foundation, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Outside her studio practice, Q is a published writer and professional guest speaker. Between projects, she likes making cat toys or cooking while listening to audiobooks on a rainy day. To learn more about Q’s work and projects, visit www.yeuqart.com and Instagram @yeuqart
Twin Walls Mural Company
Elaine Chu: East Oakland • she/her • Chinese American
Marina Perez- Wong: Bernal Heights, SF • she/her • Chicana/Chinese American/Indigenous
@twinwallsmuralcompany • www.twinwallsmuralcompany.com
Elaine Chu and Marina Perez- Wong are the dynamic duo behind the mural arts collaboration Twin Walls Mural Company. They believe in the power of visual narratives to capture and reflect a community's history, struggles, dreams and intentions. Both San Francisco natives, Elaine and Marina met at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts in 1997 and instantly formed a friendship. They began painting murals with Precita Eyes Muralists Association under the guidance of muralist Susan Kelk Cervantes who became their mentor and close friend (Or as they call her “art mom”). Each mural they worked on collaboratively brought them to the realization that they work like twins when painting. Ideas flow like water between the two and whatever one twin prefers to paint the other does not and vice versa. They formed TWMC in 2013 and have since designed and painted over 40 murals in the Bay Area and New York City.
Ahn Lee
Oakland • they/she • Cantonese • @ahnlee_faa • a-z-lee.com
Ahn Lee is a queer Cantonese artist and researcher. Their interdisciplinary practice of ceramics, research and installation relies on a combined methodology of autobiographical re-making and research on the Cantonese diaspora. As a person of Sunwui descent, Ahn explores their ancestral roots to this contested site of capitalism and imperialism through leveraging archival research historiography, critical race and gender theory. Ahn received their MFA in May 2022 from UC Berkeley’s Art Practice Department.
All Jade Wave Rising Artist Bios
“Manilatown Manang” Documentary Film Synopsis and Filmmaker Bios
WHEN
Opening / Festival Kick-Off: Thursday, April 27, 6pm
The opening reception program will also be live streamed to AAWAA’s YouTube channel
Workshops: Sunday, April 30, 1pm and 3pm
Closing Reception/Screening: Sunday, May 21, 1pm
3D Virtual Gallery: Available at somarts.org for the duration of the exhibition
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FOR MORE INFO
Email: christina@papalodown.com
Website: https://www.aawaa.net
ABOUT PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS
Asian American Women Artists Association
www.aawaa.net
AAWAA’s mission is to advance the visibility and recognition of Asian American women in the arts. Through exhibitions, publications, public programs and an informative website, AAWAA is an accessible resource and portal for educators, academics, researchers, arts and social justice communities and the general public.
Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC)
www.apiculturalcenter.org
Our mission at the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) is to support and produce multidisciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the United States
APICC was founded in 1996 by representatives of five nonprofit arts groups: Asian American Dance Performances, First Voice, Asian Improv aRts, the Asian American Theater Company, and Kearny Street Workshop. Since 1998, the center has promoted the artistic and organizational growth of San Francisco’s API arts community by organizing and presenting the annual United States of Asian America Festival as well as commissioning contemporary art for and by the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
SOMArts Cultural Center
www.somarts.org
SOMArts leverages the power of art as a tool for social change through multi-disciplinary events and exhibitions. Equipping artists with the space, mentorship and support they need to shift perspectives and innovate solutions, SOMArts fosters access to arts and culture for collective liberation and self-determination.