— July 2022 —
My newest work, White noise, and 2020 piece, Daughters of Our Diaspora, are presently part of an online group exhibition “Shifting Articulations of Asian-ness in Contemporary Canada” (curated by Yang Lim). On view virtually until August 7, 2022, this exhibition broadens the conversation around “Asian-ness” and complicates what it means to be part of Canada’s Asian diaspora today.
On July 11th and July 17th, you are invited to attend our conversations with the artists about their artistic practice and inspiration behind their works. Register here to confirm your spot in these free events.
Exhibiting Artists: Melanie Choi, Una Gil, Julia Huỳnh, Romi Kim, Wei Li, Janice Liu, Lucy Lu, Jihee Min, Carol Nguyen, Ravy Puth, Clare Yow, Shellie Zhang
— May 2022 —
I’m so pleased to share that my newest work – for City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program, Platforms: We Are Here, Live – is now in the world! slow new wave is a photographic collage and text piece presented on a 20 foot wide billboard on the NE corner of West 12th Avenue & Arbutus Street in Vancouver, right on the Arbutus Greenway (behind the Kal Tire).
The billboard will be up through to July 31st. Say hi if you see us!
— March 2022 —
My 2019 series “common wealth” is showing at the Britannia Art Gallery in Vancouver, BC from March 2 – April 1. It appears alongside photography Tyler Wilson’s “East Van based: Our home captured .” See here for full details. On March 14 at 6:30 pm Pacific time, I will also be delivering at online artist talk as part of this exhibition. Please join me as I talk about my migration story which has developed parallel to my creative one, and the ideas leading up to the creation of “common wealth.”
On March 8 – coincidentally International Women’s Day – I was heartened to be able to join my friend Dr. Sarah Shamash’s Emily Carr University course, The Ethics of Representation, for an artist talk about being a border subject. Enormous thanks to the students for their thoughtful questions and reflections and to Centre A for providing space to us!
— December 2021 —
I’m beyond humbled to have my artwork included in PUBLIC’s newest issue newest journal issue, 64: Beyond Unsettling: Methodologies for Decolonizing Futures.
The artworks, conversations, and texts in this issue of PUBLIC offer innovative perspectives in non-consumptive, collaborative, ethical, and accountable, arts-based approaches to undoing colonial dominance. PUBLIC 64: BEYOND UNSETTLING is 264 pages in length, full-colour, with a wrap-around cover by Afuwa. Guest edited by Lean Decter and Carla Taunton.
For more details and to pre-order a copy, visit PUBLIC. The issue will be published in January 2022.
— November 2021 —
I’m so pleased to participate in Carry-On!, Centre A’s first-ever Holiday Art Market from December 4-18. I have two framed pieces of work from my street photography collection and my accordion postcard sets, also featuring street photography, will all be available for purchase.
Attend the opening reception of the market and exhibition in Vancouver on December 3 from 4-7 pm by reserving your free ticket here. I’ll be there briefly between 5-6 pm 🙂 There will be a cash bar and refreshments available, and a salon style exhibition of selected artworks featured in the gallery for the silent auction. Bid on your favourite pieces of art while enjoying a drink in good company!
I have been grateful to have my common wealth and accordion postcard sets for sale in Centre A’s boutique over the last few years so this is such a wonderful opportunity to support both the gallery and the work of many other local artists!
I am having my first ever virtual studio sale! Until the end of 2021, visit my Big Cartel shop for listings of limited prints and postcard sets produced for exhibitions and events over the last few years. Prices are in effect during this time only.
Postcards ship for free across Canada and for a small charge everywhere else. Prints are only available to Canadian addresses at this time. Shipping charges apply or free local pick up (or possible delivery) in Vancouver, BC. Thanks for looking!
— October 2021 —
On October 13, I’ll join St. Andrews-Wesley United Church’s Rev. Dan Chambers in a conversation about art, spirituality, and social justice. I’m looking forward to this opportunity to talk about how my art practice and launch of United Aunties Arts Association in 2020 dovetail with these themes. St. Andrews-Wesley is my husband and United Aunties co-founder Leo’s church and I have been heartened to have gotten to know the congregation and staff since 2015.
More information and registration details can be found on their website.
On October 16, I am thrilled to participate in the Vancouver-based Art Mamas’s conversation around film and motherhood. As part of their PLOT residency at Access Gallery, the collective has been convening some truly inspiring and generative community conversations around motherhood and art-making including an intergenerational dialogue and one about precarity in academia.
My short film, Daughters of Our Diaspora, will also be available for screening online, with other experimental shorts, mid-length, and feature-length films, as part of this program. The screening program runs on the VIVO Media Arts website from October 8 – 22 here.
— April 2021 —
In 2020-21, artists from 493 cities in 72 countries played the game of TELEPHONE, passing a secret message from art form to art form, whispering 7.7 million kilometres. The online exhibition is one of the largest collections of interconnected, collaborative, interdisciplinary artworks in history and I’m heartened to be a part of this labour of love. My work can be found here. It was based on a painting by O Yemi Tubi in Dagenham, UK and a poem by Sanjana Nair in Brooklyn, USA and resulted in collages by Justin Border in Kansas City, USA.
— February 2021 —
My poster commissioned by the Graphic History Collective for their Remember | Resist | Redraw project is now up on their website. My illustrated poster and essay focus on the 1922-23 school strike that Chinese students and the Chinese community led against segregated schools in Victoria, BC.
I uncovered this new-to-me history when working on my RRR proposal and was blown away by the sheer amount of resistance and solidarity in the Chinese community there and across BC. Since then, I have heard from many folks that this incident has also been unknown to them, as well as a friend whose late father in fact attended Victoria public schools at the time of segregation.
I’m so appreciative for this opportunity to work with GHC after following their work for many years! Please visit them for more illustrated radical history about so-called Canada.
Presented by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Institute of Asian Art on February 22, I’ll be giving an artist talk tracing the intersection of race and food alongside my diasporic journey as a Chinese-Canadian immigrant and settler, exploring how it has shaped my art practice. I will be joined for a conversation with Public Programs Coordinator Stephanie Bokenfohr and IAA Programming Assistant Lynn Chen. In celebration of the Year of the Ox, we invite all attendees to share their family traditions or recipes in the chat or live on Zoom. You are also welcome to bring a dish that is special to your culture, and, together, we’ll eat and share memories. Register now.
An archive of this video recording can now be found on Vimeo:
— January 2021 —
This February 3, I will be speaking with the co-founders of Vancouver Artists Labour Union Co-operative — 溫哥華藝文工會合作社 (VALU CO-OP) and Love Intersections, David Ng and Jen Sungshine, about United Aunties as part of their new Hot Pot Talks series.
Founded in fall 2020 and an extension of my practice, United Aunties is a market that features a curated selection of local art and crafts in Vancouver’s Chinatown. We’ll get to talk about why Aunties began and also highlight the role of aunties, care, and labour in our communities.
Tickets are free. Register through Eventbrite for all dates. Other Hot Pot Talks guests include Kai Cheng Thom, The Dumpling King, Teabase (Toronto), Aiya Collective (Edmonton), Karen Tam …and more! <3
An archival of this video recording can now be found on YouTube.
— October 2020 —
On October 24, I’m pleased that I will be joining The Future is You and Me, for an online roundtable conversation with artists Nisha Patel, Elsa Robinson, and Tiffany Shaw-Collinge.
We’ll gather to share stories about the diversity of ways we have shaped and navigated creative lives. The Future is You and Me: Edmonton Edition is a free workshop-series, by and for BIPOC womxn and nonbinary artists and cultural workers, hosted by The Future is You and Me, in partnership with the Mitchell Art Gallery. Learn more and register online.
As well, the panel discussion and new artwork I organized and created for The Future’s Future Forum is now also up online. Both/and: Artist-parents in conversation + a performance was due to take place as part of a one-day symposium for BIPOC women and non-binary artists and cultural workers in March in Vancouver but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 health crisis and moved to an online format.
Please take a look at the stirring written pieces and the Q&A with the artists. My gratitude to Jackie Wong, Hiromi Goto, Meghna Haldar, Sandeep Johal, and Damla Tamer for joining me in this conversation around the intersection of art-making and caregiving.
— September 2020 —
I have published a new text piece, Some forms, on Medium. It is a look at whiteness and the diasporic self through my recent experiences of pregnancy, labour, and early parenthood.
In Vancouver’s Chinatown, my three accordion postcard sets and common wealth one continue to be available for sale in-person at Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and, for a limited time only, in Chinatown House’s online shop. Support both these wonderful neighbourhood organizations as well as other local artists and creators.