Digital Commons Network^™

Emily Hanako Momohara Interview, Madeleine Tick

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio:

Emily Hanako Momohara grew up near Seattle, Washington and earned her BFA in Photography and her BA in Art History from the University of Washington. She went on to receive her MFA in Expanded Media from the University of Kansas, where she studied under Roger Shimomura, She was an Associate Professor of Art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati where she headed the photography major through 2013. Now Momohara is in her studio fulltime. Momohara has exhibited nationally, most notably at the Light Factory with artists Mary Ellen Mark, Sara Moon and other. She has been a visiting …

Andrew Bae Interview, Richard Park

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: While Andrew Bae is situated in Chicago, he has clients from all over the globe. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Andrew Bae picked up on the business of galleries after attending school and studying chemistry and worked as a chemist for several years. Although his gallery is in one of the more desirable locations of River North, he doesn't seem to carry that many artists. He prefers a limited selection of artists (around 10) as he feels there is more personal connection with his artists especially as a gallery owner. Though the business is changing, Andrew Bae …

Kompha Seth Interview About The Cambodian Association Of Illinois, Matthew Mrozinski

Asian American Art Oral History Project

About the Organization:

“Founded in 1976, the Cambodian Association of Illinois (CAI) serves some 5,000 Cambodians in Illinois via senior health intervention; child and youth services; family health, citizenship and employment. CAI enables refugees and immigrants from Cambodia residing in Illinois, especially those in metropolitan Chicago, to become self-sufficient, productive participants in American society while preserving and enhancing their cultural heritage and community.”

About the co-Founder:

“Kompha Seth, co-Founder and Executive Director of CAI since 1981. He was a Buddhist monk in Cambodia for 23 years before emigrating to the U.S. in 1975. He has received numerous national, state and …

Shital Patel Interview, Alark Patel

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Attempting, day and night, to live with a dash of color, creativity, and courage. Life is beautiful :)

Art, for me, is an exploration of my true self…with each work I come closer and closer to my own identity. It is a means through which I lose myself in a world of great wonder and amazement, only to emerge a few hours later rejuvenated, empowered, and slightly wiser than I was when I started.

My work attempts to merge the thoughts and ideals of my Indian culture with my life experiences as an American. I have been fortunate …

Pao Hoau Her Interview, Bentley "Libby" Christenson

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Pao Houa Her is a visual artist base in Minnesota. She studied at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at Yale University School of Art. She can be reached at pher.82@gmail.com. Bio from- http://phphoto.nfshost.com/?page_id=33

Pao Houa Her was born in Laos. In 1986 after the Vietnam War ended, Pao and her family moved to Thailand and a year later moved to Minnesota. Pao is the oldest of seven and currently resides in Minneapolis, MN. She has received a B.F.A. in photography at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and was the first Hmong individual …

Dan S. Wang Interview, Katy Canzone

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio:

Dan S. Wang is a writer, artist, organizer, and printer who was born in the American Midwest in 1968 to immigrant parents. Dan’s constant concerns are the relationships between art + politics, critical reflection + social action, place + history. His research includes inquiries into the postindustrial cultural politics of the Midwest, letterpress printing as an archaeology of obsolescence, race and difference in the theater of crisis capitalism, and the cultural landscape of postsocialist China.

As a print media artist he primarily uses letterpress printing and hand set typography but avails himself of other media as words and …

Joanne Aono Interview, Charlie Lacke

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Joanne Aono is a Japanese American Sansei artist, born in Chicago. She received a BFA from Drake University with post graduate classes through the SAIC.

Solo and two person exhibitions of her paintings and drawings include South Shore Arts, Images Gallery, Eyeporium Gallery, Dayton Street, and 303 Erie Artspace, with an upcoming solo show at the Lee Dulgar Gallery. Joanne has shown in numerous group exhibitions including Julius Caesar, Contemporary Art Workshop, Governor’s State University, Woman Made Gallery, Beverly Art Center, Northern Illinois University, and Art Chicago International. She has received City of Chicago Arts grants in addition to …

Hamza Salim Interview, Julian Coleman

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Hamza J. Salim is a Palestinian artist, architect, and community based activist from Chicago, Illinois. He earned his masters in Architecture from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in New York, Chicago, Los Angels, London and Dubai. He is currently serving as the Project Director of the 12th Chicago Palestine Film Festival and is the Immigrant Community Coordinator at a non-for-profit social service agency, Arab American Family Services.

Bio from facebook.com/HamzaJSalimStudio/info

See also: http://www.hamzajsalim.com/

Roger Shimomura Interview, John Beale

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: (The following biography was taken from Roger Shimomura’s Press Release Biography on his website http://www.rshim.com/) Roger Shimomura’s paintings, prints, and theatre pieces address sociopolitical issues of ethnicity. He was born in Seattle, Washington and spent two early years of his childhood in Minidoka (Idaho), one of 10 concentration camps for Japanese Americans during WWII.

Shimomura received a B.A. degree from the University of Washington, Seattle, and an M.F.A. from Syracuse University, New York. He has had over 130 solo exhibitions of paintings and prints, as well as presented his experimental theater pieces at such venues as the …

Phillip Chen Interview, Christina Morris

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Phillip Chen received the B.F.A. degree from University of Illinois at Chicago and the M.F.A. degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His prints have been exhibited in over one hundred and fifty locations nationally and internationally and are held by public collections that include The Brooklyn Museum, The New York Public Library, The Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, The San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, and The Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, Scotland. He has traveled extensively as a visiting artist and has served as an evaluator for the National Endowment …

Wing Young Huie Interview, Anna Hendrickson

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Photographer Wing Young Huie earned a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota in 1979. Huie became a full time professional photographer in 1989 and is most well known for his photographs documenting people in a culturally diverse and changing urban landscape. Several of his projects focus on Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhoods. Huie’s photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago, Westport, New York City, West Palm Beach, Budapest, and Rotterdam. Four books based on Huie’s photography projects have been published and are listed in the Selected Works. – Bio from …

Robert Farid Karimi Interview, Kenneth Seung Yu

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Robert Farid Karimi is an interdisciplinary playwright, multimedia humorist, activist, and poet and the artistic director of kaotic good productions. His works include self (the remix), The Cooking Show con Karimi y Comrades, Shaving time, and the Approximate Value of a Foot Bubbler. Karimi has collaborated with artists such as Guillermo Gomez Peña and Laurie Carlos; performances include the Edge of The World, Reverend of the DiscoChurch, and McMuertos. His awards include a National Poetry Slam Championship, an Alliance of Artists’ Communities Midwestern Voices & Visions Award, a Verve Spoken Word Grant, NPN Creation Grant, a Kohler Arts/Industry residency. …

Magdalena Arguelles Interview, Gabriela Porras

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio:

Magdalena Arguelles was born in 1963 in Iloilo City, Philippines. Her family moved to the United States when she was six and a half years old. Arguelles studied at the Art Institute where she developed her passion for still lives and landscapes, which she incorporates in her lovely collages. Believing that art is an extension of herself, Magdalena uses her style of art to recreate a memory, or to address more serious issues such as immigration.

http://mdalenamolina.wixsite.com/-magdalena-arguelles