2024 has ushered in new energy and new projects. I’m thrilled to announce my latest project to come out of the Chen Lok Lee Legacy Project — Moon Gazing: A Call to Ancestors. I was recently selected for the Da Vinci Art Alliance’s (DVAA) 2024 Michelle Angela Ortiz Fellowship, which gives opportunities to emerging curators to develop an exhibit at DVAA that explores international identities and personal narratives. Artists in this fellowship track are challenged to push their exhibitions beyond white box gallery spaces, engaging with local
communities to examine, explore, and challenge Euro-centric narratives to bring us closer together while uplifting artists of color. This fellowship track is for a Philadelphia-based, emerging artist/curator to develop an exhibition that explores and challenges who is in charge of the narrative and why.
Moon Gazing: A Call to Ancestors is an exploration of Asian/Asian American artists’ identities, stories of migration and works of art. The exhibition will explore contemporary expressions of identity for Asian and Asian American artists with Philadelphia connections, and call into conversation the dynamic tension that underrepresented and marginalized artists with hyphenated identities face in creating art. We will explore the expectations of what is considered an authentic representation of Asian art, who Asian and Asian American artists get to be and what they get to create based on the limitations or boundaries that they face in the field.
Today, we convened to discuss and plan for the upcoming exhibition, and I’m so excited for what will be unfolding over the next few months as we prepare to launch the exhibit in September.
As Asians living in the United States, the deep traditions of cultural holidays and their meaning are sometimes lost, minimized or re-interpreted. Moon Gazing: A Call to Ancestors is an exhibition designed to engage ancestral heritage into conversation with the present.
Connecting it back to the autumnal equinox and Mid-Autumn Festival as a joyful celebration, we will invite pieces that explore ancestral heritage as well as spark joy for the artists and audience members alike. Artists will have an opportunity to explore what they long for and miss the most from their ancestors, whether they are with us in this life or have moved on to the next one. We will contemplate what from our ancestors strengthen us and give us joy, and shape our creations as artists.
Be sure to mark your calendars for September 7, 2024 for the opening reception of Moon Gazing at 704 Catharine Street in South Philadelphia. We can’t wait to see you there. For more information on Da Vinci Art Alliance, the fellowship or the upcoming exhibit, please reach out to DVAA at info@davinciartalliance.org.