Art Practice Commons^™

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 [email protected]. 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

Cheng-Yung Kuo Interview, Matthew Pranica

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Cheng-Yung Kuo was born and raised in Taiwan. He immigrated to the United States 11 years ago to study art. Enrolling in a community college on the south side of Chicago he graduated with honors as a Phi Theta Kappa All-USA Academic Team Nominee in 2006. He transferred to the School of Art Institute of Chicago to receive his Bachelors of Fine Arts. In 2009 he received his Masters of Fine Arts degree from SAIC. Now three years out of college, Cheng-Yung Kuo works at a company called Primitive and works on his personal artwork on the side.

These …

Debra Yepa-Pappan Interview, Alexandra Kelstrom

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio- Debra Yepa-Pappan is a contemporary Native American/Korean artist. She started out in design and photography, and then decided to use photography as her medium to create digital art. Coming from a strong Jemez Pueblo background, Debra incorporates themes of stereotyping, othering, and collectivism into her artwork. She also implements some of her Asian identity into her work to embrace her mixed identity.

Artist bio written by Alexandra Kelstrom.

David Tanimura Interview, Ryan Richter

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: From Chicago Illinois, David Tanimura has created a truly unique style all his own. What began as just fun on his fathers computer at a young age has turned into a passion for art and so much more. It’s not just collage, it’s Digital Collage.

~Ryan Richter

To learn more about David, visit: http://www.musashimixinq.com/

Gabriel Bizen Akigawa Interview, Joe Ondrey

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Gabriel Bizen Akagawa is the Assistant Director of Academic Advising and recently former Academic Advisor in the Office of Student Affairs and Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Sculpture department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He exhibits regularly as a Chicago-based artist. He has been awarded Artist-in-Residencies at the Alternator Gallery for Contemporary Art in Kelowna, British Columbia, at Crabtree Farm in Lake Bluff, Illinois, and at Ox-Bow in Saugatuck, Michigan. His curatorial projects include an ongoing and changing series he initiated in 2005 called “Faketure” (fake nature), which lead to founding the Faketure Consortium …

Jacob Hashimoto Interview, Madeline Barnabee

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Jacob Hashimoto was born in Greeley Colorado 1973 and grew up in Walla Walla, Washington. He Currently lives in New York City. He received his Bachelors degree in fine arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Hashimoto “redefines Japanese screen painting with his assemblages of paper "kites" in undulating, interactive compositions.” Jacob is represented by Studio La Citta, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Galerie Forsblom and Mary Boone Gallery. – Bio from http://jacobhashimoto.com/bio-cv/

Ed Lai Interview About Grace Lai, Thomas Matt

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Grace Lai painted downtown Chicago in concrete and steel bloom, for two decades producing vibrant montages of skyline-shaping buildings as they climbed. An "on-site" artist who didn't seriously take up painting until nearly 60 because of a promise made to her deceased husband, Mrs. Lai donned a hard hat and was unafraid to board construction elevators for rides high into the sky to complete her work. In winter she'd wrap herself in plastic garbage bags and substitute rubbing alcohol for water in her paints, so they wouldn't freeze.

Artist Bio taken from the Chicago Tribune (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-17/news/ct-met-0318-lai-obit-20100317_1_paintings-materials-train-stations)

To learn …

Kingo "Melvin" Fujii Interview, Andrea Duke

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Kingo Fujii was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi where his parents were deeply involved in the Kabuki theater. His father was a director/actor, artist, and chief choreographer for the original Hawaiʻi Kabuki Theater Group. His mother was a teacher of traditional Japanese musical instruments. Kingo Fujii attended the Honolulu Academy of Arts School, The Chicago Art Institute, the University of Hawaiʻi and Instituto Allende, Mexico. He works in a variety of media such as oil, watercolor, lithography, jewelry and sculpture. As a fine artists he addresses himself through surrealism, semi-impressionism and traditional or neo-orientalism. As a scientific …

Amy Lee Segami Interview, Bianca Rodriguez

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Amy Lee Segami (See-gah-me) is an artist of transformation. As a former mechanical engineer, she applies her technical knowledge to revive the ancient art of Suminagashi (Sue-mee-nah-gah-shee). Inspired by the physics principles and the Eastern philosophy, Segami exercises her artistic license to share the possibilities of imagination.

Artist Bio taken from http://web.mac.com/amybasic/iWeb/Segami%20Studios/Segami.html

Tim Hugh Interview, Matthew Holmes

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Tim Hugh loves what he does. For the past 12 years he has been the Executive Director for Asian American Showcase hosted by the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media (FAAIM). As a director Tim has kept the founding goals alive and at the center of everything the showcase is about. He finds happiness in helping others achieve their life time goals and in enriching and educating audiences. Tim treats the Foundation much like Herb Tam treated the Asian American artist collective Godzookie in the late 1990’s; with respect and altruism in the groups actions. Tim has steered …

Kuna Na Interview, Edward Kim

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio:

“I like to self-identify as an artist first, and then a woman, and then as a teacher, and then as an Asian/ Korean But as an artist, it has to be universal. It’s a large picture. I’d like to be part of the large picture rather than just an Asian American.”

Kuna Na is a Korean-born artist who teaches a diverse group of pre-kindergarten students in Chicago. She and her husband, Jim, reside in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. They opened an art gallery together in their community and named it mn Gallery after the first initials …

Erbu Interview, Xiayla Sisson

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Erbu is a Filipino artist born Wivinne “Eve” Red Buhay in Manila on March 1, 1955. Erbu is the 3^rd child of Nilo Buhay and Delia Red. Erbu was born into art, with her immediate family being very creative and well distinguished artists in their own right. Erbu’s style is unlike anyone else, she delves into the emotional and comfortable aspects of life giving her art a very home like quality.

For more information visit: http://erbu55.com/

Marlon Unas Esugerra Interview, Gis George

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Marlon Unas Esguerra is a second generation Filipino American, born and raised in Chicago. Marlon currently resides in Woodside, Queens, and is a Special Ed teacher at Queens Vocational & Technical High School.

In 1998, he co-founded the panAsian spoken word ensemble, I Was Born with Two Tongues/, which has since performed in over 300 colleges and venues across the country. The Tongues' pioneering performance work and critically-acclaimed debut CD, "Broken Speak" (AsianImprov Records), sparked a new generation of APIA voices. He is also the co-founder of the Asian American Artists Collective-Chicago, YAWP! Young Asians …

Mukul Roy Interview, Emily Ellert

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: [by Emily Ellert] Mukul Roy was born in Udupi, India where she was raised by her mother and father [the artist declined to specify what year she was born]. She began college there and finished her first two years, called intermediary. Then she moved to Calcutta with her family and continued studying literature there. During her time in Calcutta, there were various sociopolitical movements occurring and it resulted in a lot of violence and bombings. She met her husband in Calcutta, and in 1966 they moved to England where he was continuing his studies to be a …

Agnes Chou Interview, Frankie Lacoste

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: Agnes Chou, also known as Jua-Ling Chou, is an artist of the Lingnan style of Chinese painting. Agnes began her work at the age of seventy when she began taking classes from Andy Chan. Her work is primarily composed of botanical arrangements in water color on rice paper. Agnes Chou is now eighty-one years old having participated in an international exhibition eight years ago in Japan where her work can now be found in the Murphy Hill gallery. She now uses painting as a hobby and teaches at Oakton Community college.

Bueno Silva Interview, Bianca Andino

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: [by Biana Andino] Bueno Silva is the second child and oldest son in a family of 14. During WWII, Silva fled from the Japanese Army in Manila, Philippines. In 1946 his parents migrated to Gen. Santso City, South Cotabato, Philippines and where he earned his Elementary and High School education from Notre Dame of Dadiangas. In College, he studied at the University of the East, taking courses in Accounting in 1961. There he met his future wife Patria Raterta Fabie, who at the same time was taking up medicine. Silva received his bachelor’s degree in Business and Administration from …

Regin Igloria Interview, Julie Hernanadez

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: Born 1974 Manila, Philippines. Lives and works in Chicago, IL. Regin Igloria maintains a studio practice which revolves around teaching and serving as an arts administrator. He teaches studio courses at Marwen, a nonprofit youth arts organization, where he has also served as program and exhibitions coordinator. An alumnus of the program, he helped establish their Alumni Advisory Board and served as its co-chair, run their Alumni Gallery, and served as a teaching artist for many of their study trips to New York City, Boston, and Maine. He has also taught for the children's program at Anderson Ranch …

Jonathan Laxamana Interview, Kevin Galanto

Asian American Art Oral History Project

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Bio: Jonathan Laxamana is the Program Director for the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival. To learn more about CFAAF visit: www.cfaff.org

Prem Sharma Interview, Ester Lee

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio [by Ester Lee]: As a co-founder of Apna Ghar, Inc. (Our Home) a shelter for surviving women and children of domestic violence was founded in 1989, Prem Sharma also helped create the Club of Indian Women and the Indo-Crisis Line prior to this. Since moving to Chicago in 1972, Ms. Sharma has been actively involved with various South Asian organizations such as Chitrahar (South Asian television show), India Tribune, The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, the Association of Indians in America, and the Indian Medical Association. An accomplished self-taught artist, Ms. Sharma has supported the arts and …

Ruyell Ho Interview, Sarah Bonner

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio: BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago; BA University of California, Berkeley. Has had a 45 year career in art making. Was appointed to the grant review panel of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs for six years. Former professor of painting and lecturer at Bradley University, Peoria, IL. Exhibits nationally and internationally.

Johannah Silva Interview, Mal Warning

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Artist Bio & Statement:

Johannah Silva is a Chicago-based artist. She received her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999 and currently teaches full-time at Wright College.

In the last few years, I have been making work using the circular shape/form as a starting point for my paintings and drawings. The circles allude to micro as well as macro forms, -- cells and atoms as well as planetary bodies, for example. My working process involves the repetition and placement of these shapes and marks on the painting surface, in consideration with formal elements such as …

Andy Chan Interview, David Escobedo

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Bio: [by David Escobedo] Andy Chan is a Chinese immigrant that does a new style of Chinese traditional painting. His art career began in Hong Kong where he attended the Lingnan School and learned the Lingnan style of Chinese painting. Andy Chan is a well-known and established artist in his community in Chinatown Chicago. His art is beautifully done in composition and rendering. Andy is currently facing struggles with his health, which imposes on his ability to create large works and plans to make large art shows.