Due to globalization and immigration, the question of what it means to be Asian American is in constant flux, and it often falls to artists to sort through and give voice to the cultural duality that informs their lives.

Houston audiences will soon get a chance to hear what some emerging Asian American artists have to say, thanks to the “Roundtable on Contemporary Asian American Art” to be held at 2 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 20 at Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. The event is free and open to the public.

The discussion is part of the “Artists Up Close” series, a collaboration between the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at UH (CWMCA), Blaffer Gallery and the UH School of Art.

The roundtable will feature five artists with work in the Blaffer Gallery exhibition, “One Way or Another: Contemporary Asian American Art Now,” which runs Jan. 20 through March 31. The artists – Chitra Ganesh, Geraldine Lau, Glenn Kaino, Jean Shin and Mika Tajima – will be joined by Melissa Chiu, museum director of Asia Society, which organized the exhibition; and Terrie Sultan, director of Blaffer Gallery and chair of CWMCA’s board of directors.

“I am very pleased that, through the auspices of the Mitchell Center, we can expand and deepen our audiences’ experience of the creative process by providing opportunities for the viewer to interact with the artist within the context of a museum exhibition,” Sultan said.

UH art students, in particular, stand to benefit from “Artists Up Close.”

“It’s not every day that students have the chance to reach out to a broad circle of artists on site, to talk with them, ask questions, and experience different ways of working,” Sultan said. “This will be like a mini-seminar that augments their already rigorous studio program.”

The “Artists Up Close” series offers free public performances, discussions and demonstrations by artists featured in Blaffer Gallery exhibitions. For more information about “One Way or Another: Contemporary Asian American Art Now,” visit http://www.hfac.uh.edu/blaffer/exhibitions/current_exhibition/one_way_or_another.html.

WHAT:	“Artists Up Close: Roundtable on Contemporary Asian American Art”
WHEN:	2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20
WHERE:	Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston 120 Fine Arts Building University of Houston - Entrance 16 Houston, TX 77204

 

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