Laura Kina’s Art Exhibit 11/16/13 in Maryland

Indigo: An Exhibition of Textiles by Laura Kina and Shelly Jyoti

Saturday, November 16, 2013
Gandhi Memorial Center
Opening Reception from 2 to 4pm
Inaugural Remarks at 2:30pm

With Distinguished Guest Mr. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India

RSVP for Opening Reception by 11-14-2013
info@gandhimemorialcenter.org
301-320-6871
Exhibition May Be Viewed Through January 2014
Fridays and Saturdays 10am – 4pm and By Appointment

Gandhi Memorial Center
4748 Western Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20816
www.gandhimemorialcenter.org

This exhibit is presented by the Gandhi Memorial Center in cooperation with
the Embassy of India and with support of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Shelly Jyoti’s “Indigo Narratives” refer to the 19th century history of India’s indigo farmers, their oppression and Mahatma Gandhi’s subsequent non-violent resistance leading to India’s freedom. Shelly lived in Gujarat, India and her “Narratives” use traditional embroidery by rural women in Gujarat with support of Shrujan: Threads of Life and indigo resist dyeing printing on khadi fabric with the 9th generation ajrakh artisans of Gujarat famed for their bold embellished textiles. www.shellyjyoti.com

Laura Kina’s “Devon Avenue Sampler” is a portrait of her South Asian/Jewish Chicago neighborhood, West Roger’s Park, and features a bricolage of pop street signage rendered in patchwork quilt paintings. The “Sampler” includes works hand embroidered by artisans from MarketPlace: Handwork of India, a fair trade women’s organization in Mumbai, India. Laura lives and works in Chicago’s “Little India”, a vibrant multiethnic immigrant community.www.laurakina.com

The common thread between both bodies of work is the color indigo blue from India’s colonial past, to indigo-dyed Japanese kasuri fabrics and boro patchwork quilts, through blue threads of a Jewish prayer tallis, to working class blue jeans in the U.S. Since 2009, “Indigo” has exhibited in galleries and cultural centers in Baroda, New Delhi, Mumbai, Seattle, Miami, and Chicago.

View Artist Laura Kina’s Work in New Delhi, India (11/8/13)

Press Release

CARE Package c/o New Delhi, India

Curated by Ombretta Agró Andruff in collaboration with the artists

Opening Reception: Friday, November 8th, 2013. 6:30pm onwards

India International Centre
Annex Art Gallery, Lodhi Estate
40, Max Mueller Marg
New Delhi, India 110003
http://iicdelhi.nic.in/

Follow the project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carepackageart

IIC is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, CARE Package c/o New Delhi, India, with an opening reception onNovember 8th, 2013. The show runs from November 7–15, 2013.

Inspired by the concept of “CARE Package”, the exhibition brings together five international women artists from Asia or of Asian descent, touching venues in North America as well as Asia. The exhibition debuted in the USA at Twelve Gates Gallery in Philadelphia (October 2012) and is traveling next to IIC, New Delhi before going on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia [the city named in the title changes according to the hosting location].

A rich tradition exists throughout Asian countries of gift packages exchanged as social contract and, while unwritten, they embody strong cultural, social, political and economic codings. In North America, care packages are associated with gifts sent from loved ones to their children and youth who are away from home (usually off to camp, college, or the military). Historically the CARE package was the unit of aid at the core of the food relief effort developed in 1945 by the USA-based humanitarian CARE organization and was sent to a large number of Europeans at risk of starvation in the wake of World War II. It soon became an icon of American generosity and global leadership.

In an era where the concept of “American generosity and global leadership” is a far cry from its meaning during the post-war years and very much up for debate, the participating artists tell stories that grew out of their own personal history and cultural heritage to tackle issues of nationhood, race, gender, religion, and economic exploitation on a world scale, in the context of emergent global capitalism.

Storytelling and a deep interest in history and untold stories is a shared strategy amongst this newly formed collective of interdisciplinary women artists who have historical and contemporary links to disparate geographies such as India, Pakistan, Japan, Cambodia, Canada and the USA. In a grass roots diplomatic effort, they are collaborating with an Italian, New York/ Miami-based curator to conduct a trans-cultural dialogue between their works, their countries of origin, and the intersections and migrations between.

Artists: Shelly Bahl (born in Benares, living between New York and Toronto); Shelly Jyoti (Born in Rohtak, living in New Delhi); Laura Kina (born in Riverside, CA, to an Okinawan father and Basque/Anglo mother, and living in Chicago); Saira Wasim (born in Lahore, living in California); and Cambodian-American Anida Yoeu Ali (born in Battambang, Cambodia, raised in Chicago, currently living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia).

For more information, contact curator Ombretta Agro’ in Miami ombretta@ombrettaagro.com
Or in New Delhi, contact artist Shelly Jyoti shellyjyoti12@yahoo.com
Tel: 91 9582252062

This New Delhi exhibition is organized by India International Centre.

Multi-talented Performer Alejandro T Acierto

Alejandro T. Acierto is an award winning performer.

“Alejandro T. Acierto is a musician and interdisciplinary artist whose innovative work in contemporary music, performance art, and art installation has led Time-Out New York to call him a “maverick.” He employs a multi-media aesthetic integrating music, sound, performance, and installation that explores notions of fluid identities and the slippages of cultural definitions.”

His next performance, Suspicious Package, is October 26th at 7:30pm in Brooklyn, NYC.

He will be in Saint Paul, MN November 5th and Chicago, IL Nov 8th.

Learn more about this storyteller and his future performances at

http://alejandroacierto.com/

3MW Collective

We are really excited about 3MW Collective – created by three Canadian women (Jordan Clarke, Ilene Sova and Rema Tavares) whose mission is to use “visual art to deconstruct mixed-race identity.” They’re located in Toronto Ontario, but we expect their beautiful and thought-provoking art will soon be seen elsewhere.

Upcoming showings:

Location: Brockton Collective Inc, 442a Dufferin St., Toronto, Canada
Dates:
- October 3rd, 2013, 7pm – 11pm (Opening Reception)
- Open October 4th & October 6th, 2013 by appointment only

Check their website frequently for more events: 3MWCollective.org

Exhibit of Bi/Multicultural-Identified Los Angelenos at PMCA

Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles

August 11, 2013 – January 5, 2014

In this video installation, Los Angeles artist Bia Gayotto investigates how people respond to navigating and inhabiting two or more places and cultures. Through an open call, she invited Los Angeles-area residents living along Route 66 who identify as bi- or multicultural to participate in an interview and video shoot that examines life in fourteen neighborhoods along the route from Pasadena to Santa Monica, including Chinatown, Little Armenia, Echo Park, and Thai Town.Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles is the third iteration in a series that previously centered on Silicon Valley and Chicago. The questions Gayotto asked of the participants were designed to stimulate a dialogue reflecting the pluralities of place, identity, and belonging. By juxtaposing cityscapes, architecture, and domestic settings with images of the participants performing simple, everyday actions and a soundtrack that consists of abstract music and ambient sound, Gayotto explores the experiences of those who live in an intercultural space and offers a broader, multilayered portrait of the greater Los Angeles area.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, and is supported by the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Bia Gayotto is a recipient of an ARC Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.

Bia Gayotto, still from Somewhere in Between: Los Angeles, 2013. Two-screen video installation with sound. TRT 20 min. Courtesy of the Artist.

‘Mixed’ Visual Artists Laura Kina & Wei Ming Dariotis – Opening Reception

War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art

curated by Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis

Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience

August 9, 2013 – January 19, 2014
719 S. King Street Seattle, WA 98104
206-623-5124
http://www.wingluke.org/

Opening Reception: Thursday, August 8, 2013 @ 6-8pm
6-7pm: Special preview for Museum members and invited guests. Light refreshments will be served
7-8pm: Open to the public, free admission, no RSVP required
Read more about the exhibition – http://www.warbabylovechild.com/exhibition/

Curators Laura Kina and Wei Ming Dariotis will be in attendance, as well as featured artists Stuart Gaffney, Louie Gong, Lori Kay, Richard Lou and Jenifer Wofford.

If you’d like to attend the special preview from 6-7pm, please contactmmartinez@wingluke.org or 206.623.5124 ext 107.

This exhibition brings together works by 19 artists, highlighting different approaches to the identities and experiences of mixed Asian Americans, mixed Pacific Islander Americans and Asian transracial adoptees. While their biographies are varied and often diverge from the dominant stereotypes of mixed Asian identities, their lives are shaped by the specific histories of Asian Pacific-U.S. collisions: narratives of war, economic and political migration and colonization. As an ethnically ambiguous Asian American generation comes of age in a world fixated on post-racial politics and moving beyond issues of identity, War Baby | Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art examines how artists engage various facets of hybridity in their artwork.

Artists: Mequitta Ahuja, Albert Chong, Serene Ford, Kip Fulbeck, Stuart Gaffney, Louie Gong, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lori Kay, Li-lan, Richard Lou, Samia Mirza, Chris Naka, Laurel Nakadate, Gina Osterloh, Adrienne Pao, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, Amanda Ross-Ho, Jenifer Wofford, Debra Yepa-Pappan.

Image: Jenifer Wofford, MacArthur Nurses VI, 2013

Word on the Street: Image, Language, Signage

Featuring work by mixed roots visual artist Laura Kina.

Opening Reception: Friday, June 14, 5:00 – 7:00 pm

Exhibit runs June 14-August 10, 2013

Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts

1104 South Wabash Ave. 2nd floor, Chicago, IL 60605

Gallery Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

This exhibition considers the expressive potential of image and language through signage: how do artists use the visual and physical characteristics of signage, along with its often site specific cultural currency, to create realms of poetic or political meaning in public space or the gallery? With a focus on forms of permanent and ephemeral signage this exhibition will consider artists’ billboards, marquees, street signs, banners and posters among other forms of infrastructural signage.

For more info visit: http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Interarts/events/exhibitions/index.php

Pictured above is one of the new works I’ll be showing – Laura Kina “Okinawa – All American Food” 30 x 45 in., oil on canvas, 2013. See more new works at:http://www.laurakina.com/newwork2013.html

Visible & Invisible

Visible & Invisible

www.janm.org

Curated by Cindy Nakashima, Lily Anne Yumi Welty, and Duncan Williams, reveals the long “mixed” history in the Japanese American community. Starting with the earliest days of immigration, over a century ago, multiracial and multiethnic families and individuals dared to forge unexpected communities and families, against all odds. The pioneers of Japanese American history took risks and crossed oceans, embraced new communities, and established roots in unfamiliar places. They created multiracial families and their children became the first Americans of Japanese ancestry. In doing so, they played a pivotal role in transforming the United States into a place where they—and others like and unlike them—can belong.

This exhibition is currently at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and runs from April 7 – August 25th, 2013. Click HERE for more details on the JANM exhibit.