Icons of Presence: Asian American Activist Art October 23, 2008

The public is invited to attend the opening of the Chinese Culture Center's new exhibition, Icons of Presence: Asian American Activist Art, organized by guest curator and scholar Margo Machida.

Icons of Presence highlights the substantial role of printmaking and graphics as a powerful means of social expression for Asian American visual culture. It showcases both graphic art and posters from the landmark decades of the 1970s and '80s, and more recent work by Jim Dong, Nancy Hom, and Leland Wong, who played a pivotal role in the San Francisco Bay area's Asian American arts movement. Putting the work of these three Chinese American artists in a wider context, the exhibition and its accompanying catalog also emphasize the range of influences that have shaped their art and cultural activism.

Icons of Presence is conceived as a counterpart to Asian/ American/ Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900-1970. This national historical survey exhibition of Asian American art, with significant West Coast representation, is on view at the de Young Museum in San Francisco from October 25, 2008 - January 18, 2009. Since the de Young show does not extend through the '70s or beyond - the period that witnessed the rise of the Asian American movement and cultural politics - Icons of Presence foregrounds the activist turn in Asian American visual art. By focusing on the work of these three individuals, Icons of Presence provides a slice of a larger history in American art that is both national and international in scope, to which these still-active Chinese American artists bring their own distinctive perspectives.

Icons of Presence is on view to the public from October 23, 2008 to January 3, 2009. Opening reception: Oct. 23, 2008 at 6:30 PM

Free.

Official Website: http://www.c-c-c.org