Rebecca Hall, assistant curator at the USC Pacific Asia Museum located in Pasadena, discussed details about the upcoming exhibition “We Are Here: Contemporary Art and Asian Voices in Los Angeles” during the Visual and Cultural Studies Lecture at Cerritos College on Feb. 20.
This exhibition features seven female contemporary LA based artists of diverse Asian Pacific heritages: Reanne Estrada, Phung Huynh, Ann Le, Ahree Lee, Kaoru Mansou, Mei Xian Qiu, Sichong Xie.
“I think it is important for us to do exhibitions that are historic or traditional, but contemporary is important to do because otherwise the story ends and is in our interest to represent that,” Hall said.
The art pieces in this exhibition are inspired by each individual artists lives and family histories that tell the stories about experiences and heritage.
During the presentation, Hall spoke about each of the artists and showed the students a glimpse of the art and the unique stories of each artists work.
The gallery is an exhibition that includes a variety of media and styles including painting, photography, and video.
Hall shared that she found the artists through google, she combined her love for research to look up artists whose art she found fascinating.
Hall expressed she is happy for how the exhibition turned out and hopes for the students to know that, “Representation matters, there are so many voices and different people that make art who have a lot to say. There are amazing people doing amazing art that may not fit what we think of,” she said.
Art History Professor, Lisa Vitela, who is teaching an Asian art history class and introduction to visual and cultural studies invited Dr. Rebecca Hall to share details about the exhibition and about the artistfor students to see and hear more.
“I really appreciate that the exhibition uses different materials and incorporates many women artists, it has a great diversity so I think it will be worth the visit,” Vitela said.
Vitela also mentioned that she always encourages her students to visit museums, “I hope that lectures like these make visiting the museum less intimidating and something that they feel they know more about and prepared when they go to visit,” she said.
Stacey Imanal, graphic design major, visits museum regularly and is planning to go to the We Are Here: Contemporary Art and Asian Voices.
“Hearing the curator and coming to the school to talk about the type of art they have in the museum is interesting, it’s something you don’t experience every day, and hearing it from the person who creates the entire show is fascinating,” Imanal said.
Jesse Deniz, graphic design major, thought the presentation was informative and got interested in the work of Phung Huynh, as he found it creative how the artist draws portraits on donut boxes to express complexities of immigration, displacement, and cultural assimilation, “It makes me want to go see the gallery itself, it seems very cultural,” he said.
The exhibition, “We Are Here: Contemporary Art and Asian Voices in Los Angeles,”
will take place at the USC Pacific Asia Museumfrom March 13-June 14.
